704 Area Code – Charlotte, North Carolina: Location, Time Zone & History

Charlotte is the second-largest banking center in the United States after New York City, home to Bank of America and Truist Financial headquarters as well as a major East Coast hub for Wells Fargo. That financial weight sits within area code 704, one of the original 86 area codes AT&T assigned in October 1947, when it covered the entire state of North Carolina.

704's territory shrank in stages: the eastern two-thirds of the state, from Winston-Salem eastward, split off as 919 in 1954, and the western third, including Asheville and the Blue Ridge and Foothills region, split off as 828 in 1998, leaving 704 focused on the Charlotte metro area. In 2000, North Carolina's first-ever overlay code, 980, was added on top of 704, entering service that May with mandatory ten-digit dialing following in 2001.

Banking aside, the region is closely tied to motorsports -- Charlotte Motor Speedway in nearby Concord hosts NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 and Bank of America 400, and roughly 90% of NASCAR teams are based within 50 miles of the track. Duke Energy is also headquartered in Charlotte. Beyond the city itself, the numbering plan area extends to Concord, Gastonia, Kannapolis, Mooresville, and Salisbury, serving a combined population of about 2.79 million across fifteen counties.