Goldsboro

Town and administrative headquarters of Wayne County, east North Carolina; population (2000) 39,000. It is situated on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, near the Neuse River, and 72 km/45 mi southeast of Raleigh. Settled after the 1840 establishment of a railroad, it developed as a market and distribution centre for regional farms, and still has an agricultural economy, with some light manufacturing. Local farms produce corn, potatoes, soybeans, truck crops, dairy goods, poultry, and livestock. Tobacco, however, is the principal cash crop. Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is to the southeast. Wayne Community College (1957) is in the town, which also has several health facilities.