Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The county seat of Durham County, small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. Durham is the 4th-most populous city in North Carolina and 70th-most populous city in the United States with a population of 283,506 at the 2020 census. The city is located in the east-central part of the Piedmont region along the Eno River. The four-county Durham–Chapel Hill metropolitan area has an estimated 620,000 residents, while the greater Research Triangle area has a population of over 2.37 million people.