NC 50 is a major cross-state route in North Carolina that runs from near the Virginia border to the Atlantic Ocean. It is the major north/south route through Wake County and the state capital of Raleigh.

North of the Raleigh city center NC 50 uses Glenwood Avenue and Creedmoor Road on its way to Creedmoor and Oxford. Through downtown it uses a small (less than 1/2 mile) part of Wade Avenue, the southern end of Capital Boulevard, and the paired one-way streets of McDowell Street (Northbound) and Dawson Street (Southbound).

South of the city center it uses parts of S. Saunders and S. Wilmington streets (or rather, those streets use NC 50; the through route follows NC 50 and the streets come and go).

There are 2 concurrencies in and around Raleigh:

Throughout the entire length of these concurrencies, the route is known either by the road name OR as US 70. NC 50 or US 401 is ignored when referring to the route.

In Garner, NC 50 splits from US 70 by heading south on Benson Road. From this point to its southern terminus, it parallels I-40 towards Topsail Beach. There used to be a concurrency with NC 24 near Kenansville, but this is now NC 24 Business, as the mainline NC 24 has been routed to follow I-40 and NC 903 to bypass central Kenansville. The road makes a convenient (if slower) alternative to I-40, and was used as a construction detour for I-40 during construction of the US 70 Bypass interchange in Johnston County in 2006.

The modern NC 50 bears little resemblance to the original 1920s NC 50. The original road is now the modern US 1, and the only city that the two routings had in common was Raleigh. When US 1 was designated, the old NC 50 was moved to its modern routing both south (1940s) and north (1960s, formerly known as US 15A) of Raleigh.