Gastonia is a city in North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Gaston County and also is the third largest suburb of the Charlotte Area, behind Concord and Rock Hill. The population was 69,904 as of 2009 (35% of the population of Gaston County)1. It is part of the Charlotte metropolitan area, officially designated the Charlotte-Concord-Rock Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As the third-largest city (in population) in the MSA after Charlotte and Concord, Gastonia has experienced steady growth, with a population increase between 2000 and 2010 (according the US Census Bureau) of 8.2%.

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