Durham County area

Population and density of Durham County

The Census Bureau estimates that 347,240 people lived in Durham County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #217 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 324,859, the population has grown by 22,381 (+6.9%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 287.6 square miles of land, that is 1,208 people per square mile (466 per km²), placing Durham County #150 nationally for density and #4 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 0.53 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 Durham County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Durham County. Together they are home to 309,946 people (89.3%); the other 37,294 (10.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Durham city, with 305,116 residents in the county (the city extends into 2 other counties). By land, Raleigh city is the largest at 153.3 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Durham city grew fastest since then (+7.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Durham 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; Durham County accounts for 16.3% of the land and 55.5% 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

17 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Durham County; 10 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2727827503275172756027572275832761327617277012770327704277052770727708277092771227713

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 Durham County

Durham County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Durham County. The largest neighbor is Wake County (834.8 mi²) and the smallest is Person County (392.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Durham County forms a block of 3,125.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 9.2%.

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

Durham County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.6 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 169 areas the size of Durham County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17 miles (27.3 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 Durham County?

Durham County has more land than 395 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 Durham County at #2,852 nationally by total area, 25 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 3.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.3 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 Durham 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.