Edgecombe County area

Population and density of Edgecombe County

The Census Bureau estimates that 49,121 people lived in Edgecombe County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,039 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #53 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 48,892, the population has grown by 229 (+0.5%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 505.4 square miles of land, that is 97 people per square mile (38 per km²), placing Edgecombe County #1,015 nationally for density and #59 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 6.6 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 Edgecombe County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Edgecombe County. Together they are home to 30,033 people (61.1%); the other 19,088 (38.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Rocky Mount city, with 15,330 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Tarboro town, has 10,979 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Tarboro town grew fastest since then (+2.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Edgecombe County is a central county of the Rocky Mount, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 148,486 residents on 1,045.9 square miles of land; Edgecombe County accounts for 48.3% of the land and 33.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #273 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #297 by population. It belongs to the Rocky Mount-Wilson-Roanoke Rapids, NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Edgecombe County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

27801278032780927812278152781927822278292783427843278522786427878278812788627891

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 Edgecombe County

Edgecombe County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Halifax County (723.7 mi²) and the smallest is Wilson County (367.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Edgecombe County forms a block of 3,246 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.6%.

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

Edgecombe 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 Edgecombe 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 Edgecombe County?

Edgecombe County has more land than 1,168 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 Edgecombe County at #2,149 nationally by total area, 95 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 percentage points lower. 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 Edgecombe 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.