Currituck County area

Population and density of Currituck County

The Census Bureau estimates that 33,158 people lived in Currituck County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,405 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #70 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 28,101, the population has grown by 5,057 (+18%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 261.9 square miles of land, that is 127 people per square mile (49 per km²), placing Currituck County #847 nationally for density and #48 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 Currituck County

Currituck County has no incorporated cities, towns or villages. All 33,158 of its residents live in unincorporated communities, which the Census Bureau describes as census-designated places rather than municipalities.

Metropolitan area

Currituck County is an outlying county of the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 18 county equivalents have 1,797,213 residents on 3,201.9 square miles of land; Currituck County accounts for 8.2% of the land and 1.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #96 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #38 by population. It belongs to the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

15 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Currituck County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

279162791727923279272792927939279412794727950279562795827964279652796627973

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Currituck County

Currituck County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 2 in Virginia. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Dare County (383.2 mi²) and the smallest is Camden County (240.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Currituck County forms a block of 1,468.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.8%.

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

Currituck County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.9 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 186 areas the size of Currituck County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 16.2 miles (26 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 Currituck County?

Currituck County has more land than 340 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 Currituck County at #2,083 nationally by total area, 799 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 50.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 49.1 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 Currituck 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.