Forsyth County area

Population and density of Forsyth County

The Census Bureau estimates that 282,805 people lived in Forsyth County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #260 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #8 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 251,285, the population has grown by 31,520 (+12.5%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 224.6 square miles of land, that is 1,259 people per square mile (486 per km²), placing Forsyth County #141 nationally for density and #6 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 0.508 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Forsyth County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Forsyth County. Together they are home to 12,494 people (4.4%); the other 270,311 (95.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Cumming city, with 12,494 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Forsyth County is a central county of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metropolitan division. Its 29 county equivalents have 6,482,182 residents on 8,784.1 square miles of land; Forsyth County accounts for 2.6% of the land and 4.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #10 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #6 by population. It belongs to the Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Forsyth County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

30004300053002430028300403004130097301073050630534

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Forsyth County

Forsyth County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Fulton County (526.9 mi²) and the smallest is Dawson County (210.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Forsyth County forms a block of 2,206.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.2%.

How big is Forsyth County compared with U.S. states?

Forsyth County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.6 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 257 areas the size of Forsyth County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 15 miles (24.1 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Forsyth County?

Forsyth County has more land than 262 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Forsyth County at #2,958 nationally by total area, 2 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 9.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 8 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Forsyth County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.