Burke County area

Population and density of Burke County

The Census Bureau estimates that 88,655 people lived in Burke County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #682 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #33 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 87,570, the population has grown by 1,085 (+1.2%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 506.3 square miles of land, that is 175 people per square mile (68 per km²), placing Burke County #691 nationally for density and #33 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 3.7 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 Burke County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Burke County. Together they are home to 31,845 people (35.9%); the other 56,810 (64.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Morganton city, with 17,849 residents in the county. By land, Hickory city is the largest at 33.4 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Morganton city grew fastest since then (+2.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Burke County is a central county of the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 376,890 residents on 1,639.5 square miles of land; Burke County accounts for 30.9% of the land and 23.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #197 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #152 by population. It belongs to the Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

17 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Burke County; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2809028168286012860228612286192862828637286412864528655286572866628667286712869028761

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 Burke County

Burke County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Rutherford County (565.4 mi²) and the smallest is Avery County (247.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Burke County forms a block of 3,392.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.9%.

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

Burke County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 96 areas the size of Burke County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.5 miles (36.2 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 Burke County?

Burke County has more land than 1,171 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 Burke County at #2,123 nationally by total area, 72 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 1.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 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 Burke 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.