Jacksonville is a city in Onslow County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 72,723, which makes Jacksonville the 14th-largest city in North Carolina. Jacksonville is the county chair and most populous community of Onslow County, which is coterminous similar to the Jacksonville, North Carolina metropolitan area. Demographically, Jacksonville is the youngest city in the United States, with an average age of 22.8 years old, which can be ascribed to the large military presence. The low age may also proceed part due to the population drastically going up greater than the like 80 years, from 783 in the 1930 census to 72,876 in the 2021 Census estimate.

It is the house of the United States Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune and New River Air Station. Jacksonville is located adjoining North Carolina’s Crystal Coast area.

After the fade away of the Tuscarora wars in 1713 and the forced removal of Native American tribes was followed by long-lasting settlement of the regions between New Bern and Wilmington. The New River became a major production center for naval stores gone turpentine. The downtown quay park is built on the site indigenous site of Wantland’s Ferry.

In 1752, a devastating hurricane destroyed the county chair of Johnston, and Wantlands Ferry, located supplementary up the New River, at the gift site of Jacksonville, was chosen as the site of the other county courthouse. The area was later known as Onslow Courthouse. In 1842, the town was incorporated and renamed Jacksonville in honor of former U.S. President Andrew Jackson. The town was briefly captured and occupied in November 1862 by a raiding party led by U.S. Navy Lt. William B. Cushing.