Companies include Grady-White Boats, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Catalent, and Avient, among others.

In 1774 the town was moved to its present location on the south bank of the Tar River, three miles (4.8 km) west of its original site.

In 1786, the name was changed to Greenesville in honor of General Nathanael Greene, the American Revolutionary War hero.

[7] For over a century, Greenville was recognized only as an important tobacco market and the home of a small state-supported college, chartered by the Legislature in March 1907 and named East Carolina Teacher's Training School, a co-ed institution.

[9] The city and Pitt County have also become home to many other major industries and businesses including Catalent, Attindas, Grady-White Boats, and Hyster-Yale Materials Handling.

[7] In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd made landfall in eastern North Carolina, dropping nearly 17 inches (430 mm) of rain during the hours of its passage.

Due to the heavy flooding in downtown Greenville, the East Carolina Pirates were forced to relocate their football game against #9 Miami to N.C. State's Carter–Finley Stadium in Raleigh, where they beat the Hurricanes, 27–23.

Greenville has a humid subtropical climate, which is characterized by hot and sweltering summers, and mild to cool winters, with temperatures rarely dropping below freezing.

The population density was 2,364.6 inhabitants per square mile (913.0/km2), making Greenville the densest city in Eastern North Carolina.

Greenville is predominantly Protestant Christian, with large concentrations of Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, and various other evangelical groups.

[20] The Roman Catholic community in Greenville has seen steady growth over the years, with the migration of Hispanic workers to the area, along with significant numbers of people from the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States who work for East Carolina University, the ECU Health, and other employers.

[21] St. Gabriel's serves hundreds of Spanish speaking families and supports a Head Start program in the West Greenville area.

[25][26][27][28] The growth and diverse nature of the city's population has also resulted in the addition of an Islamic Mosque and Hindu Temple within the last decade.

[32] A diversified base of companies in advanced manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, emerging technology, and food and beverage fuels the economy.

MrBeast, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Avient, Catalent, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, and Weyerhaeuser are among a long list of companies that call Greenville home.

In 2024, the North Carolina Department of Commerce announced that two international companies selected Greenville for their first United States based manufacturing locations.

East Carolina University offers musical concerts, theatrical and dance productions, travel films, and lectures.

[38] The East Carolina Arts Education Foundation offers an annual concert series centered around the Perkins & Wells Memorial Organ at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, C. B. Fisk, Inc., Opus 126.

A new development called 11 Galleria, on the site of the former Carolina East Mall, features a number of big-box retailers.

[43] ECU's sports teams, nicknamed the Pirates, compete in NCAA Division I FBS as a full-member of the American Athletic Conference.

In 2010 a state of the art, Lady Pirates softball stadium with a seating capacity of 1,500 has been completed, neighboring a new ECU track and field facility and soccer stadium plus an Olympic sports coach's offices and team rooms facility are in varying stages of completion all along Charles Boulevard, the main entry way for all Pirate sports.

Olympic gold medalist Mark Lenzi coached the East Carolina University Pirate Men's and Women's diving teams until his death in 2012.

In this run, the pitchers threw a combined perfect game, followed by a no-hitter, the first US team to throw back-to-back no hitters.

Along with Little League success, Greenville teams have also won multiple Babe Ruth Baseball titles.

Greenville United FC games are currently played at John Paul II Catholic High School.

The Sports Commission has helped secure such national events as NCAA Championships, and starting in 2021, Greenville is the home of the Little League Softball World Series.

For the VOA, the main target areas for the station's shortwave broadcasts were Latin America, the Caribbean with special emphasis on Cuba, and Africa.

Three complexes, one for management, distribution, and monitoring, and the other two for actual transmitting, formed an approximately nineteen-mile (31 km) equilateral triangle around Greenville.

[57] The East Carolina Heart Institute is open and has added 250 jobs at the hospital along with a six floor facility.

The 96 inpatient room facility serves as one of the major destinations for oncology patients in Eastern North Carolina.