Anson County area

Population and density of Anson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 21,758 people lived in Anson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,786 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #77 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 22,058, the population has declined by 300 (−1.4%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 531.5 square miles of land, that is 41 people per square mile (16 per km²), placing Anson County #1,733 nationally for density and #89 in North Carolina. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the North Carolina median is 116. Put another way, there are about 16 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 Anson County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Anson County. Together they are home to 8,438 people (38.8%); the other 13,320 (61.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Wadesboro town, with 5,035 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Wadesboro town grew fastest since then (+0.1%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Anson County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Anson County is an outlying county of the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 11 county equivalents have 2,938,830 residents on 5,597.4 square miles of land; Anson County accounts for 9.5% of the land and 0.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #39 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #21 by population. It belongs to the Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Anson County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2800728091281022810328119281332813528170

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 Anson County

Anson County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 1 in South Carolina. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Chesterfield County (799 mi²) and the smallest is Stanly County (395.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Anson County forms a block of 2,832 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.8%.

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

Anson County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 91 areas the size of Anson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.1 miles (37.1 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 Anson County?

Anson County has more land than 1,253 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 Anson County at #2,051 nationally by total area, 82 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.1 percentage points lower. 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 Anson 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.