Chatham County area

Population and density of Chatham County

The Census Bureau estimates that 85,111 people lived in Chatham County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #700 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #34 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 76,258, the population has grown by 8,853 (+11.6%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 681.5 square miles of land, that is 125 people per square mile (48 per km²), placing Chatham County #854 nationally for density and #49 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 5.1 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 Chatham County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Chatham County. Together they are home to 17,588 people (20.7%); the other 67,523 (79.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Siler City town, with 8,155 residents in the county. The county seat, Pittsboro town, has 5,054 residents. By land, Cary town is the largest at 61.4 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Pittsboro town grew fastest since then (+11.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Chatham County is a central county of the Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 625,485 residents on 1,759 square miles of land; Chatham County accounts for 38.7% of the land and 13.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #178 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #94 by population. It belongs to the Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

20 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Chatham County; 11 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2720727208272132725227256272982731227330273442734927355275022751627517275192752327540275592756227713

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 Chatham County

Chatham County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Wake County (834.8 mi²) and the smallest is Lee County (255.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Chatham County forms a block of 4,955.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.8%.

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

Chatham County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 71 areas the size of Chatham County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.1 miles (42 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 Chatham County?

Chatham County has more land than 1,847 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 Chatham County at #1,421 nationally by total area, 46 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 3.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.7 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 Chatham 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.