Columbus County, NC borders Bladen near Whiteville metropolitan centre thus giving us a 2020 estimated population standing at 57,817 making it the 44th most populous county located in North Carolina overall. Its county seat is Whiteville with other towns including Chadbourn & Evergreen - Whiteville itself equates out to Columbus’s biggest town aside from acknowledged county seat. This area had been created out of Bladen and Whiteville Counties back in 1808 when local citizens petitioned for new administrative boundaries - posthumously named after explorer Christopher Columbus thanks General Assembly who approved such decision earlier that same year.