Rowan County area

Population and density of Rowan County

The Census Bureau estimates that 155,096 people lived in Rowan County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #458 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #20 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 146,883, the population has grown by 8,213 (+5.6%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 511.6 square miles of land, that is 303 people per square mile (117 per km²), placing Rowan County #506 nationally for density and #20 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 2.1 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 Rowan County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Rowan County. Together they are home to 69,363 people (44.7%); the other 85,733 (55.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Salisbury city, with 36,879 residents in the county. By land, Kannapolis city is the largest at 35.3 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Kannapolis city grew fastest since then (+11.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Rowan County is an outlying 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; Rowan County accounts for 9.1% of the land and 5.3% 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

20 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Rowan County; 14 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2701327054280232803628039280412807128072280812808328088281152812528127281372813828144281462814728159

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 Rowan County

Rowan County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Iredell County (574.5 mi²) and the smallest is Davie County (263.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Rowan County forms a block of 2,659.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.2%.

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

Rowan 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 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 95 areas the size of Rowan County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.6 miles (36.4 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 Rowan County?

Rowan County has more land than 1,187 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 Rowan County at #2,093 nationally by total area, 58 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 2.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.2 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 Rowan 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.