Wake Forest is a town in Franklin, Granville and Wake counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina; located with mention to entirely in Wake County, it lies just north of the acknowledge capital, Raleigh. At the 2020 census, the population was 47,601. That is happening from 30,117 in 2010, up from 12,588 in 2000. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the city’s population to be 47,601 as of April 1, 2020. In 2007, the town was listed by Forbes magazine as the 20th fastest growing suburb in America, with a 73.2 percent growth in population between 2000 and 2006. Wake Forest was the original home of Wake Forest University for 122 years past it moved to Winston-Salem in 1956.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget also includes Wake Forest as a ration of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary Combined Statistical Area, which has a population of 2,106,463 as of U.S. Census 2020 Population Estimates. The Office of Management and Budget redefined the Federal Statistical Areas and dismantled what had been for decades the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area. They have now been split them into two remove Metropolitan Statistical Areas labeled Raleigh-Cary and Durham-Chapel Hill. However they yet function as one Research Triangle (or colloquially The Triangle) metropolitan area.

In 1832, Dr. Calvin Jones, originally from New England, bought 615 acres (2.49 km²) of forested land in Wake County, North Carolina. The sparsely populated Place became known as the Forest of Wake, or Wake Forest. Jones sold his farm to the North Carolina Baptist Convention for $2,000, who opened the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute, later Wake Forest College, on the site. The Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, completed in 1840, established a depot in easy to realize to Forestville that stimulated the studious and surrounding village. College leaders convinced the railroad to pretend to have the depot even closer to the scholarly in 1874, leading to more economic development. This community was incorporated as the “Town of Wake Forest College” in 1880. In 1909, the word “College” was removed from the broadcast of the town. The studious moved to the much larger city of Winston-Salem in 1956. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary began offering classes upon the indigenous campus of Wake Forest University in 1950, and occupied the whole campus bearing in mind the academe completed its move.

Wake Forest operates below the council–manager form of government. The citizens elect a mayor and board of commissioners as the town’s governing body. The town manager is appointed by the board to encouragement as the chief involved officer administering whatever municipal affairs. The current mayor is Vivian A. Jones (R, term expires 2025) and the board of commissioners are James E. “Jim” Dyer (R, 2023), Nick Sliwinski (R, 2025), Chad D. Sary (R, 2023), R. Keith Shackleford (D, 2025), and Adam B. Wright (D, 2023).