Richmond County area

Population and density of Richmond County

The Census Bureau estimates that 42,041 people lived in Richmond County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,171 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #62 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 42,955, the population has declined by 914 (−2.1%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 473.7 square miles of land, that is 89 people per square mile (34 per km²), placing Richmond County #1,083 nationally for density and #62 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 7.2 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 Richmond County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Richmond County. Together they are home to 16,740 people (39.8%); the other 25,301 (60.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Rockingham city, with 8,815 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Richmond County is a central county of the Rockingham, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Richmond County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 473.7 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #445 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #302 by population. It belongs to the Fayetteville-Lumberton-Pinehurst, NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Richmond County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2722927281273062833028338283452834728351283632836728379

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 Richmond County

Richmond County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 1 in South Carolina. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Moore County (697.6 mi²) and the smallest is Scotland County (319.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Richmond County forms a block of 2,993.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.8%.

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

Richmond County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.2 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 103 areas the size of Richmond County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.8 miles (35 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 Richmond County?

Richmond County has more land than 1,046 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 Richmond County at #2,247 nationally by total area, 71 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 1.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2%. The two percentages are within 0.1 percentage points of each other. 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 Richmond 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.