Guilford County area

Population and density of Guilford County

The Census Bureau estimates that 562,234 people lived in Guilford County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #128 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 541,254, the population has grown by 20,980 (+3.9%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 646 square miles of land, that is 870 people per square mile (336 per km²), placing Guilford County #210 nationally for density and #6 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 0.735 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 Guilford County

13 incorporated places lie at least partly in Guilford County. Together they are home to 465,993 people (82.9%); the other 96,241 (17.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Greensboro city, with 308,667 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Burlington city grew fastest since then (+43.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Guilford County is a central county of the Greensboro-High Point, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 805,945 residents on 1,994 square miles of land; Guilford County accounts for 32.4% of the land and 69.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #159 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #79 by population. It belongs to the Greensboro--Winston-Salem--High Point, NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

35 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Guilford County; 26 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2721427215272332723527244272492726027262272632726527268272822728327284272982730127310273132731727320273422735727358273772740127403274052740627407274082740927410274112741227455

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 Guilford County

Guilford County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Randolph County (782.4 mi²) and the smallest is Forsyth County (408 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Guilford County forms a block of 3,378.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.1%.

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

Guilford County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 75 areas the size of Guilford County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.4 miles (40.9 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 Guilford County?

Guilford County has more land than 1,755 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 Guilford County at #1,550 nationally by total area, 83 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 1.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Guilford 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.