Here is the latest edition of my mini-state almanac, presented in the hope that someone will soon offer us a printed and complete 'North Carolina Almanac.'

State-estimated population in 2006: 8,856,505, an increase of 10.1 percent over the 8,049,313 population in 2000. During the same period there was a 6.4 percent increase for the entire country . Note: North CarolinaÕs population was projected to exceed 9 million during 2007. Current projections are: 2010, 9,345,823; 2020, 10,709,289; 2030, 12,227,739

Motor vehicles registered in the state in 2007: 8,523,302, one for almost every resident.

Populations (with 2006 estimates followed by 2000 census): Population figures for the 20 largest cities and towns (the 2006 rank followed by 2000 rank are in parenthesis). The 2006 estimates are followed by 2000 figures: Charlotte (1, 1), 630,478, 540,828 Raleigh (2, 2), 356,321, 276,093 Greensboro (3, 3), 236,865, 223,891 Durham (4, 4), 209,009, 187,035 Winston-Salem (5, 5), 196,990, 185,776 Fayetteville (6, 6), 168,033, 121,015 Cary (7, 7), 112,414, 94,536 High Point (8, 8), 97,796, 85,839 Wilmington (9, 9), 95,944, 75,838 Asheville (10, 10), 72,789, 68,889 Greenville (11, 13), 72,052, 60,476 Gastonia (12, 12), 69,904, 66,277 Jacksonville (13, 11), 69,688, 66,715 Concord (14, 14), 62,587, 55,977 Rocky Mount (15, 15), 57,057, 55,893 Chapel Hill (16, 16), 49,919, 48,715 Burlington (17, 17), 48,399, 44,917 Wilson (18, 18), 47,380, 44,405 Hickory (19, 20), 40,583, 37,222 Kannapolis (20, 21), 40,223, 36,910

Geography Total Area: 53,821 square miles. Land area: 48,718 square miles. Water area: 5,103 square miles. Coastline length: 301 miles. Shoreline length: 3,375 miles.

North Carolina Firms in Fortune 500 (Rank 2007) Bank of America (9), LoweÕs (45), Wachovia (46), Duke Energy (143), Nucor (161), Progress Energy (238), BB&T Corporation (265), Sonic Automotive (285), Reynolds American (288), VF Corporation (332), Family Dollar Stores (359), Goodrich (390), SPX Corporation (471)

Major Private Employers (Ranked by number of employees in North Carolina, 2006) Wal-Mart (1), Duke University (2), Food Lion (3), Wachovia Bank (4), LoweÕs Home Centers (5), Bank Of America (6), International Business Machines (7), Harris Teeter Inc (8), Branch Banking & Trust (9), United Parcel Service Inc. (10), Hanes (11), North Carolina Baptist Hospitals (12), Lowes Food Stores (13), U S Air (14), Moses H Cone Memorial Hospital (15), Target (16), Duke Energy Corporation (17), Smithfield Packing (18), GlaxoSmithKline (19), Belk (20).

Listed below by government sector and private industry are the average total employees and the average employee weekly wage during the second quarter of 2007. Federal Government: 62,785, $1,122 State Government: 177,481, $800 Local Government: 438,091, $682 All Private Industry: 3,392,492, $711 Total-Industry/Govt.: 4,070,851, $718

Agriculture Number of farms in 2006: 48,000 Land in farms: 8,800,000 acres. Average size farm: 183 acres. (Here are comparative numbers for 2002. Number of farms in: 54,000. Land in farms: 9,070,000 acres. Average size farm: 168 acres.) About 28,500 of these farms have total annual sales of lese than $10,000. Major North Carolina Farm Commodities by Rank in 2006 (cash receipts in millions of dollars and percent of total commodities) 1. Broilers ($2,088, 25.5 percent); 2, Hogs ($1,917, 23.4 percent); 3, Greenhouse/Nursery/Floriculture ($893, 10.9 percent); 4, Turkeys ($518, 6.3 percent); 5, Tobacco ($496, 6.1 percent); 6, Cotton and cottonseed ($303, 3.7 percent); 7, Chicken eggs ($258, 3.1 percent); 8, Soybeans ($244, 3.0 percent); 9, Cattle and calves ($236, 2.9 percent); 10, Corn ($218, 2.7 percent).