Oak Island is a seaside town located mostly on the barrier island of Oak Island (which also contains the town of Caswell Beach), in Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. A small part of the town extends onto the mainland north of the island’s bridge. The population was 6,571 at the 2000 census. It was founded in 1999 by the consolidation of the towns of Long Beach and Yaupon Beach. Its main industry is tourism; the town has an average summer population of 30-50,000.
The island has been inhabited since the early 19th century; Fort Caswell was built on its eastern end in 1838. The remainder of the island was developed beginning in the late 1930s; a pavilion attracted people from nearby Southport and people hunted foxes in the northern area near the Intracoastal Waterway.