A geography of small counties
North Carolina's least-populous counties fall into two clear clusters. The first is the northeastern Coastal Plain — Tyrrell, Hyde, Camden, Gates, Washington, Chowan, Perquimans, and Pasquotank — a sparsely settled region of sounds, swamps, and family farms. The second is the far western Mountains — Graham, Clay, Swain, Mitchell, Alleghany, Avery — where rugged terrain limited 19th-century settlement and continues to constrain modern growth.
Together, the smallest 25 counties hold under 7% of North Carolina's total population while covering roughly a quarter of the state's land area — almost the exact inverse of the top 10.
Smallest North Carolina counties by land area
Small population doesn't always mean small footprint. By land area, the smallest counties are Chowan (~173 sq mi), Pasquotank (~227), and Clay (~215). The actual smallest county in both dimensions is probably Chowan — fewer than 14,000 residents in just 173 square miles, much of it shoreline along the Albemarle Sound.
Economies of NC's smallest counties
In the Mountains, small-county economies lean on tourism, second-home construction, and seasonal agriculture (apples in Henderson, Christmas trees in Avery and Ashe). In the northeastern Coastal Plain, the mix is closer to traditional row-crop agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and a small but durable wildlife-refuge tourism base around the Alligator River and Pocosin Lakes.
For the opposite end of the spectrum, see largest North Carolina counties or the full 100-county population list.