Gaston County area

Population and density of Gaston County

The Census Bureau estimates that 246,558 people lived in Gaston County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #299 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #11 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 227,944, the population has grown by 18,614 (+8.2%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 355.8 square miles of land, that is 693 people per square mile (268 per km²), placing Gaston County #260 nationally for density and #7 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 0.923 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 Gaston County

13 incorporated places lie at least partly in Gaston County. Together they are home to 162,794 people (66%); the other 83,764 (34%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Gastonia city, with 87,067 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Belmont city grew fastest since then (+9.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Gaston County is an outlying county of the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 11 county equivalents have 2,938,830 residents on 5,597.4 square miles of land; Gaston County accounts for 6.4% of the land and 8.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #39 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #21 by population. It belongs to the Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

18 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Gaston County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

280062801228016280212803228033280342805228054280562807728080280862809228098281012812028164

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 Gaston County

Gaston County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 1 in South Carolina. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is York County (680.6 mi²) and the smallest is Lincoln County (295.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Gaston County forms a block of 2,320.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.3%.

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

Gaston County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.9 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 137 areas the size of Gaston County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 18.9 miles (30.4 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 Gaston County?

Gaston County has more land than 550 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 Gaston County at #2,698 nationally by total area, 26 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 2.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 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 Gaston 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.