Forsyth County, North Carolina

Forsyth County is a county in North Carolina, United States, in the northwest Piedmont about
25 miles northwest of Greensboro. It had a population of 382,590 at the 2020 census, an estimated
401,718 by 2025, and covers 407.85 square miles (1,056.3 km2) of land centred near
36°08′N 80°16′W.

Winston-Salem is the county seat and by far the largest city; its postal code is 27101. The
county holds 3 cities, 8 incorporated towns, 1 census-designated place and 11 unincorporated
communities across 15 historic townships, and it runs on Eastern Time.

Towns & Villages in Forsyth County

Forsyth County has 23 named places on record: 11 incorporated cities and towns, 1
census-designated place and 11 unincorporated communities with no local government of their own.
CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural communities with
no formal boundary. Several municipalities straddle the county line and are marked below.

Four places on this list straddle county lines and their population figures are citywide, not
Forsyth-only. High Point’s 114,059 residents are mostly in Guilford County, with smaller
shares in Davidson and Randolph counties — only a slice of the city lies inside Forsyth.
King’s 7,197 residents sit mainly in southern Stokes County, with the remainder south inside
Forsyth. Stokesdale is centred in Guilford County, and Germanton’s census-designated place is
mostly in Stokes County. Kernersville’s figure above is also citywide, with a small outskirt
reaching into Guilford County. The county’s original list of scattered subdivision names
— Ardmore, Buena Vista, Reynolda, West Salem, Washington Park and dozens more — are
residential neighborhoods inside Winston-Salem itself, not separate places, so they are left off
this table.

Townships

North Carolina counties are historically divided into townships for tax and voting-precinct
purposes; they have no active township government of their own today. Forsyth County has 15:
Abbots Creek, Belews Creek, Bethania, Broadbay, Clemmonsville, Kernersville, Lewisville, Middle
Fork I, Middle Fork II, Old Richmond, Old Town, Salem Chapel, South Fork, Vienna and Winston.
Winston Township contains the core of Winston-Salem; Clemmonsville, Kernersville, Lewisville and
Bethania townships each contain the incorporated town of the same name; Old Town Township holds
Rural Hall; Belews Creek and Vienna townships hold the unincorporated communities of the same
name. Per-township population counts are not published in a form this page can verify, so they
are omitted rather than estimated.

ZIP Codes

• 27101 — Winston-Salem (downtown; the city also carries 27103, 27104, 27105, 27106,
  27107, 27109 and 27110 among its many internal codes)
• 27284 — Kernersville
• 27012 — Clemmons
• 27023 — Lewisville
• 27021 — King
• 27051 — Walkertown
• 27045 — Rural Hall
• 27050 — Tobaccoville
• 27019 — Germanton
• 27010 — Bethania

Stokesdale, Belews Creek, Bethabara, Pfafftown, Union Cross, Vienna, Stanleyville, Dennis,
Donnaha, Dozier, Horneytown and Seward have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered
under the nearest incorporated town’s code.

Geography

Forsyth County sits in North Carolina’s northwest Piedmont, a belt of rolling hills between
the mountains and the coastal plain, and lies within the Yadkin Valley wine-growing region. Of
its 412.35 square miles, 407.85 are land and 4.50 are water, about 1.1 percent. Belews Lake, a
Duke Energy cooling reservoir on the county’s northeast edge, is the county’s largest body
of water; the Yadkin River forms part of the western county line, and Muddy Creek and Salem Lake
drain the interior.

Stokes County lies to the north, Rockingham County to the northeast, Guilford County to the
east, Davidson County to the south, Davie County to the southwest, Yadkin County to the west and
Surry County to the northwest. Stokes
County, Rockingham
County, Guilford County,
Davie County, href=”https://townsvillages.com/us/yadkin-county/”>Yadkin County and href=”https://townsvillages.com/us/surry-county/”>Surry County all have their own pages on
this site; Davidson County does not currently have a North Carolina county page here.

Demographics

Forsyth County had a population of 382,590 at the 2020 census, the fourth-most populous county
in North Carolina, and the latest estimate puts it near 401,718 residents. Winston-Salem and
Kernersville are by far the two largest communities. Median household income runs $67,165 (2023
American Community Survey), below North Carolina’s statewide figure of $70,804 (2023 ACS).
Population density works out to roughly 938 people per square mile of land, well above the state
average, reflecting the county’s position at the center of the Piedmont Triad, anchored by
Winston-Salem.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 33,376 people,
followed by manufacturing at 23,164 and retail trade at 18,666. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist,
the region’s largest employer, anchors the health care and biomedical-research sector from its
Winston-Salem campus alongside Wake Forest University. Winston-Salem is also home to R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Company, headquartered downtown since the 1870s and once the city’s dominant employer,
and to Hanesbrands, the apparel maker behind the Hanes and Playtex labels. The county’s biggest
annual event is the Carolina Classic Fair, formerly the Dixie Classic Fair, held every autumn at
the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds; it traces back to an 1882 grain exposition and regularly draws
crowds in the hundreds of thousands.

History

North Carolina’s General Assembly formed Forsyth County in 1849, carving it out of Stokes
County. It was named for Colonel Benjamin Forsyth, who was killed in the War of 1812. Winston, the
county seat, was chartered in 1849 next to the existing Moravian community of Salem, founded in
1766; the two towns merged in 1913 to form Winston-Salem.

Bethania, founded by Moravian settlers in 1759, is the county’s oldest municipality and the
only remaining independent Moravian village still active in the southern United States; its
500-acre historic district retains an eighteenth-century street layout still in use today. The
county’s tobacco and textile industries, built by R.J. Reynolds and others from the late 1800s
onward, drove decades of growth before the local economy diversified into health care, finance
and biomedical research in the late twentieth century.

Getting There

Interstate 40 crosses the county through Winston-Salem, joined by I-74 and US 52, US 158, US
311 and US 421, plus a network of state highways.

• Greensboro — about 25 miles east
• High Point — about 18 miles southeast
• Statesville — about 35 miles southwest
• Mount Airy — about 30 miles north

Piedmont Triad International Airport, in Guilford County west of Greensboro, is the nearest
major commercial airport, with service to 14 U.S. destinations. Smith Reynolds Airport, 3 miles
northeast of downtown Winston-Salem, handles general aviation and flight training but no scheduled
passenger flights. Amtrak’s Crescent, Carolinian and Piedmont trains stop at High Point
station, about 18 miles southeast of Winston-Salem.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Forsyth County located?
It sits in North Carolina’s northwest Piedmont, about 25 miles northwest of Greensboro,
bordered by Stokes, Rockingham, Guilford, Davidson, Davie, Yadkin and Surry counties.

What is the population of Forsyth County?
382,590 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 401,718 — the fourth-most populous
county in North Carolina.

How big is Forsyth County?
407.85 square miles (1,056.3 km2) of land, plus 4.50 square miles of water.

What is the county seat of Forsyth County?
Winston-Salem, formed by the 1913 merger of Winston and the Moravian town of Salem, is the county
seat and largest city.

How many towns and cities are in Forsyth County?
Eleven incorporated places — Winston-Salem, High Point (partly), Kernersville, Clemmons,
Lewisville, King (partly), Stokesdale (partly), Walkertown, Rural Hall, Tobaccoville and Bethania
— plus one census-designated place, Germanton, and eleven unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does Forsyth County use?
27101 and several others for Winston-Salem; 27284 for Kernersville; 27012 for Clemmons; 27023 for
Lewisville; and separate codes for King, Walkertown, Rural Hall, Tobaccoville, Germanton and
Bethania.

What is Forsyth County known for?
Winston-Salem’s tobacco and textile history under R.J. Reynolds, its modern health care and
biomedical-research sector, and Bethania, the oldest continuously active Moravian village in the
southern United States.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in North Carolina.