The county seat is Hillsborough, a historic small town with about 9,500 residents. The largest community is Chapel Hill, with roughly 62,000 people. Chapel Hill is home to the University of North Carolina and dominates the southern part of the county. The town of Carrboro (about 21,000 residents) is adjacent to Chapel Hill and functions almost as one urban area with it. Mebane has a portion in the county (mostly in Alamance), with about 2,000 Orange County residents.

Other notable communities include Efland, Hillsborough suburbs, and unincorporated areas like Blackwood and Caldwell. The total population of Orange County is approximately 150,000. Most residents live in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro urban area or the growing corridor along I-40 toward Durham, while the northern and western parts of the county remain more rural with farmland and forests. It’s a highly educated, affluent county driven by the university and tech/biotech industries.