Ayden is a town in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 4,932 at the 2010 Census. The town is a part of the Greenville Metropolitan Area of North Carolina's Inner Banks region. The town holds an annual Collard Festival, is home to many local businesses, and currently resides as one of North Carolina's smallest towns.

Ayden is located at 35°28′16″N 77°25′15″W / 35.47111°N 77.42083°W / 35.47111; -77.42083 (35.470973, -77.420740).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.3 square miles (6.0 km²), all of it land.

In 1891, William Henry Harris asked the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to build a railroad depot on a portion of his farm in order to create a village. A 40-acre (160,000 m²) parcel of land was divided into residential lots surrounding the depot in "Harristown", with Harris owning every other lot. Within the next several years, lots were sold and homes built. Businesses began to open up to support the new residents, and on February 3, 1891, the town was incorporated as "Ayden." Within a few years, the Carolina Christian College and the Free Will Baptist Seminary were established. By 1919, Ayden had full-time electricity supplied by the Ayden municipal light plant. In 1922, the Mutual Building and Loan Association of Ayden was organized to help families obtain mortgages to build homes in Ayden.

After experiencing tough times during the Great Depression, and after the Second World War, the town began to grow. To accommodate the growth, commercial, cultural, religious, and other establishments were opened within and around Ayden. The community is still growing today thanks to the continued development of Greenville as an industrial and economic center for eastern North Carolina.

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