Craven County area

Population and density of Craven County

The Census Bureau estimates that 105,025 people lived in Craven County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #604 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #28 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 100,726, the population has grown by 4,299 (+4.3%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 706.5 square miles of land, that is 149 people per square mile (57 per km²), placing Craven County #778 nationally for density and #41 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 4.3 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 Craven County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Craven County. Together they are home to 61,068 people (58.1%); the other 43,957 (41.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is New Bern city, with 34,724 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, New Bern city grew fastest since then (+10.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Craven County is a central county of the New Bern, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 127,358 residents on 1,514.4 square miles of land; Craven County accounts for 46.7% of the land and 82.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #108 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #15 by population. It belongs to the New Bern-Morehead City, NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

2851928523285262852728530285322853328560285622857328586

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 Craven County

Craven County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Beaufort County (832.7 mi²) and the smallest is Pamlico County (336.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Craven County forms a block of 3,906.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.1%.

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

Craven 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 69 areas the size of Craven County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.6 miles (42.8 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 Craven County?

Craven County has more land than 1,916 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 Craven County at #1,234 nationally by total area, 72 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 8.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 7.5 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 Craven 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.