Greenville ( GREEN-vil; locally GREEN-vəl) is the county seat and most populous city of Pitt County, North Carolina, United States. It is the principal city of the Greenville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the 12th-most populous city in North Carolina. Greenville is the health, entertainment, and educational hub of North Carolina's Tidewater and Coastal Plain. As of the 2020 census, there were 87,521 people in the city. The city has continued to see a rapid population increase and an economic boom with most of the growth being seen in the 20th and 21st centuries. Many major companies have moved their regional, national, and international headquarters to Greenville. Companies include Grady-White Boats, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Catalent, and Avient, among others. Greenville is the home of East Carolina University, the fourth-largest university in the University of North Carolina System, and ECU Health Medical Center, the second largest hospital in North Carolina and the flagship hospital for ECU Health and the teaching hospital for the Brody School of Medicine.