Ranlo is a small town in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States and a suburb of Charlotte, located north of Gastonia. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 4,511, up from 3,434 in 2010.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has 2.06 sq. mi of land and 0.002 sq. mi of water.
History
Ranlo was named for John Calvin Rankin and William Thomas Love, two prominent area industrialists - "Ranlo" was a contraction of RANkin and LOve. The community grew up around their textile mills, which produced cotton goods. Rex Spinning Company was begun in 1915, Ranlo Manufacturing Company in 1916, and Priscilla Spinning Company in 1921. Nearby, the community of Smyre was developed around the A. M. Smyre Manufacturing Company, which was founded in 1917. In 1963, Ranlo and Smyre were incorporated as the Town of Ranlo, in reaction to the concern over possible annexation into Gastonia. However, the part of the Smyre mill village south of the Norfolk Southern Railway was not included, and was eventually annexed by Gastonia in June 1996.
Row houses were erected in the 1920s and 1930s and still stand today. At the time, they were owned by the mill and rented at very low rates to workers. They have long since been sold to individuals, and the mills are 75-80% closed. Only one or two still operate and they are at low capacity. The town, however, has become a "bedroom community" and prides itself on its facilities and growth. New industry has started to move in and new neighborhoods are being built.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Ranlo had a population of 4,511. The median age was 35.4 years. 26.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 12.1% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 96.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.8 males.
99.6% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.4% lived in rural areas.
There were 1,634 households, of which 40.0% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 49.0% were married-couple households, 16.0% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 27.2% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 20.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
!Race
!Num.
!Perc.
|-
|White (non-Hispanic)
|2,599
|57.61%
|-
|Black or African American (non-Hispanic)
|1,038
|23.01%
|-
|Native American
|18
|0.4%
|-
|Asian
|116
|2.57%
|-
|Other/Mixed
|188
|4.17%
|-
|Hispanic or Latino
|552
|12.24%
|}
2000 census
As of the census