Southport is a city in Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Its population was 3,828 as of the 2018 census. The mayor is Joseph P. Hatem.

Southport is the location of the North Carolina Fourth of July Festival, which attracts 40,000 to 50,000 visitors annually.

The Southport Place was explored in the 1500s by Spanish explorers. During the 18th century, British settlements along the Carolina coast lacked fortifications to guard against pirates and privateers, and numerous Spanish attackers exploited this weakness. In admission to these attacks, Governor Gabriel Johnston in 1744 appointed a committee to pick the best location to build a fort for the explanation of the Cape Fear River region. It was determined that the fort should be build up at a site at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. During the thesame year, France declared war neighboring Britain, later known as King George’s War, increasing the fort’s need. Further, increasingly bold Spanish privateer raids led the North Carolina General Assembly to certificate the construction of “Johnston’s Fort” in April 1745, which would take over be known as Fort Johnston. The commissioner of South Carolina categorically to lend ten small cannons for the fort, and the legislature, in spring 1748, appropriated 2,000 pounds for construction costs, and construction finally began. Southport developed around Fort Johnston.

Southport was founded as the town of Smithville in 1792. Joshua Potts had requested the formation of a town neighboring Fort Johnston, and the North Carolina General Assembly formed a commission of five men to administer its founding. The town was named after Benjamin Smith, a colonel in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and later superintendent of North Carolina. Smithville grew as a fishing village and through supporting military activity. Smithville was the county seat of Brunswick County from 1808 to 1977. In an effort to market the town as a major shipping port, Smithville was renamed Southport in 1887. Smithville Township, in which Southport lies, and other local landmarks, such as the cemetery, retain the Smithville name.