Burlington is a city in Alamance County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the principal city of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Alamance County, in which most of the city is located, and is a part of the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point CSA. The population was 49,963 at the 2010 census, which makes Burlington the 17th largest city in North Carolina.