Sanford is a city in Lee County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 30,261 at the 2020 census. It is the county chair of Lee County.

Sanford was named for C.O. Sanford, a railroad civil engineer instrumental in the building of the rail lines through the area that formed the initiation of what became the city of Sanford.

Sanford is located in Lee County, North Carolina, which was formed from parts of the surrounding three counties in 1907. On establishment of the other county, Sanford and Jonesboro were the major towns in the area. Rather than find which would be the county seat, the decision was to place the county’s other courthouse directly along with the two towns. For decades, Lee County was the single-handedly county in the United States to have a courthouse afterward an RFD address. In the late 20th century Sanford had grown to such an extent that it eventually merged next Jonesboro. The town of Jonesboro became Jonesboro Heights, and the broadcast of Sanford was kept for the town.

The general Sanford Place played key roles in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, specifically more or less sites past the House in the Horseshoe and Endor Iron Furnace. Over the subsequently decades, the Sanford area became an important source of coal, brownstone, and brick. In particular brownstone and subsequent brick production made Sanford a key provider of these building materials for areas throughout the United States.