Wilkes County area

Population and density of Wilkes County

The Census Bureau estimates that 66,233 people lived in Wilkes County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #842 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #43 of 100 in North Carolina. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 65,979, the population has grown by 254 (+0.4%), compared with +7.2% for North Carolina as a whole.

With 753.7 square miles of land, that is 88 people per square mile (34 per km²), placing Wilkes County #1,089 nationally for density and #63 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 7.3 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 Wilkes County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Wilkes County. Together they are home to 8,504 people (12.8%); the other 57,729 (87.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is North Wilkesboro town, with 4,369 residents in the county. The county seat, Wilkesboro town, has 3,618 residents. By land, Elkin town is the largest at 6.82 mi² across all its counties.

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

Metropolitan area

Wilkes County is a central county of the North Wilkesboro, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area. Wilkes County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 753.7 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #286 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #132 by population.

ZIP codes

23 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Wilkes County; 12 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2702028606286182862128624286352864028642286442864528649286512865428659286652866928670286752867628683286852868928697

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 Wilkes County

Wilkes County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Iredell County (574.5 mi²) and the smallest is Alleghany County (234.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Wilkes County forms a block of 3,901.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.3%.

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

Wilkes County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. North Carolina’s county land could hold about 65 areas the size of Wilkes County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.5 miles (44.2 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 Wilkes County?

Wilkes County has more land than 2,054 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 Wilkes County at #1,269 nationally by total area, 101 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Wilkes 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.