Located in Durham County in the northern central part of North Carolina, Durham is the fourth largest city in the state. This city has an estimated population of around 263,000 people, with over 540,000 living in the surrounding metropolitan area. Durham covers an area of 108.3 square miles and was named after Bartlett S. Durham, an American doctor and entrepreneur who donated the land on which the city was built.

Durham is part of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Combined Statistical Area and has close links with the North Carolina capital. The city is home to two key educational institutions in the form of Duke University and North Carolina Central University, and Durham is also part of the Research Triangle zone.

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