Lee County area

Population and density of Lee County

The Census Bureau estimates that 70,258 people lived in Lee County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #801 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #41 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 63,283, the population has grown by 6,975 (+11%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 255.1 square miles of land, that is 275 people per square mile (106 per km²), placing Lee County #541 nationally for density and #23 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 2.3 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 Lee County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lee County. Together they are home to 35,518 people (50.6%); the other 34,740 (49.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Sanford city, with 34,138 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Sanford city grew fastest since then (+13.1%).

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

Metropolitan area

Lee County is a central county of the Sanford, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Lee County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 255.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #528 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #111 by population. It belongs to the Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Lee County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2733027332275052832628355

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 Lee County

Lee County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Lee County. The largest neighbor is Moore County (697.6 mi²) and the smallest is Harnett County (595.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lee County forms a block of 2,229.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.4%.

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

Lee County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.1 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 191 areas the size of Lee County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 16 miles (25.7 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 Lee County?

Lee County has more land than 326 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 Lee County at #2,928 nationally by total area, 32 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 1.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 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 Lee 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.