The county seat is Whiteville, with about 5,000 residents, serving as the main commercial and government hub. The next largest town is Chadbourn, home to around 1,600 people and known for its historic strawberry farming roots. Tabor City, with roughly 4,000 residents, sits on the southern edge near the South Carolina line and is famous for its annual yam festival.

Other notable communities include Lake Waccamaw, a small town of about 1,000 people next to the state’s largest natural lake, and smaller spots like Bolton, Cerro Gordo, Fair Bluff, and Brunswick. The county’s total population sits around 50,000, making it one of the more sparsely populated counties in the region. Most folks live in these small towns scattered across the rural landscape, with agriculture, timber, and manufacturing as the main industries. It’s a quiet, traditional part of the North Carolina coastal plain.