Scotland County area

Population and density of Scotland County

The Census Bureau estimates that 33,322 people lived in Scotland County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,398 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #69 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 34,167, the population has declined by 845 (−2.5%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 319.1 square miles of land, that is 104 people per square mile (40 per km²), placing Scotland County #956 nationally for density and #54 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 6.1 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 Scotland County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Scotland County. Together they are home to 15,851 people (47.6%); the other 17,471 (52.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Laurinburg city, with 14,582 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Scotland County is a central county of the Laurinburg, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Scotland County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 319.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #517 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #413 by population. It belongs to the Fayetteville-Lumberton-Pinehurst, NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

28343283452835128352283632836428396

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 Scotland County

Scotland County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 1 in South Carolina. Each of them has more land than Scotland County. The largest neighbor is Robeson County (947.3 mi²) and the smallest is Hoke County (390.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Scotland County forms a block of 2,610.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.2%.

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

Scotland County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.2 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 152 areas the size of Scotland County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17.9 miles (28.8 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 Scotland County?

Scotland County has more land than 455 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 Scotland County at #2,805 nationally by total area, 38 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 0.5%, 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 Scotland 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.