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 71,059 as of 2010 (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 suburb of Charlotte (in population) in the MSA after Concord and Rock Hill, Gastonia has experienced steady growth, with a population increase between 2000 and 2010 (according the US Census Bureau) of 8.2%.

Gastonia and surrounding areas are home to several notable cultural centers.

The Schiele Museum of Natural History is east of downtown on Garrison Boulevard. The Gaston-Lincoln Regional Library System's main library is across the street from the museum. The Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden is located just southeast of the city on NC 279. The U.S. National Whitewater Center (on the Catawba River) is east of the city in neighboring Mecklenburg County, NC. Southpark Mall in Charlotte, NC is 45 minutes away. The Northlake Mall, also in Charlotte, is about 20 minutes away.

Gastonia and Gaston County have a varied topography, with the maximum elevations of 1,690 feet (King's Pinnacle) and 1,625 (Crowder's Mountain) both in the Crowders Mountain State Park. Part of this park is in the city limits of Gastonia, several miles west of downtown. The park and the peaks are popular destinations for outdoor enthusiasts and are the highest elevations in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area. A few smaller mountains are located at the periphery of the city.

Gastonia is known for its abundance of churches, primarily Baptist and Methodist.

Interstate 85 (I-85) links Gastonia directly with Charlotte, Greensboro, Durham, and Petersburg/Richmond (to the north) and Spartanburg, Greenville, Atlanta and Montgomery (to the south). Gastonia's transportation network is supplemented by one additional freeway (US 321), the freeway portion of which directly connects Gastonia with transcontinental I-40 and the city of Hickory, North Carolina, which is 35 miles north of Gastonia. An additional limited-access highway, the toll Garden Parkway is planned as a loop that would encircle Gastonia to the west, while also adding a direct southeastern connection to Charlotte, I-485 and the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. Gastonia is also served by three US highways: US 29; US 74 (US 29 and 74 are multiplexed together through Gaston County); and US 321. US 29 parallels I-85 through the Carolinas; while US 74 provides direct east-west links to Charlotte and Wilmington (east), and Asheville and Cherokee (to the west). US 321 links Gastonia to central South Carolina and the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest North Carolina.