Iredell County area

Population and density of Iredell County

The Census Bureau estimates that 211,798 people lived in Iredell County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #341 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #14 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 186,686, the population has grown by 25,112 (+13.5%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 574.5 square miles of land, that is 369 people per square mile (142 per km²), placing Iredell County #437 nationally for density and #15 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 1.7 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 Iredell County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Iredell County. Together they are home to 93,576 people (44.2%); the other 118,222 (55.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Mooresville town, with 55,842 residents in the county. The county seat, Statesville city, has 32,181 residents. By land, Statesville city is the largest at 31 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Troutman town grew fastest since then (+13.8%).

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

Metropolitan area

Iredell County is a central 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; Iredell County accounts for 10.3% of the land and 7.2% 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

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Iredell County; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

27013270202702827055280362811528117281252816628625286342863628660286772867828689

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 Iredell County

Iredell County shares a land border with 9 county equivalents. It has more land than 8 of them. The largest neighbor is Wilkes County (753.7 mi²) and the smallest is Alexander County (260 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Iredell County forms a block of 4,280.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.4%.

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

Iredell County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.8 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 85 areas the size of Iredell County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24 miles (38.6 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 Iredell County?

Iredell County has more land than 1,487 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 Iredell County at #1,751 nationally by total area, 16 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 3.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.7 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 Iredell 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.