Nash County area

Population and density of Nash County

The Census Bureau estimates that 99,365 people lived in Nash County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #632 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #30 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 94,951, the population has grown by 4,414 (+4.6%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 540.4 square miles of land, that is 184 people per square mile (71 per km²), placing Nash County #673 nationally for density and #31 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 3.5 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 Nash County

12 incorporated places lie at least partly in Nash County. Together they are home to 55,297 people (55.7%); the other 44,068 (44.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Rocky Mount city, with 39,790 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Nashville town, has 5,911 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Dortches town grew fastest since then (+5.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Nash 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; Nash County accounts for 51.7% of the land and 66.9% 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

15 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Nash County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

275572759727803278042780727809278162782227844278562787827880278822789127896

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 Nash County

Nash County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Johnston County (792 mi²) and the smallest is Wilson County (367.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Nash County forms a block of 3,421.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.8%.

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

Nash County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 90 areas the size of Nash County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.2 miles (37.4 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 Nash County?

Nash County has more land than 1,288 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 Nash County at #2,033 nationally by total area, 99 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Nash 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.