Buncombe County Schools is the state's 13th largest school system and the largest district in Western North Carolina. We employ nearly 3,800 people and serve more than 24,500 students, making BCS the county's second largest employer. More than 55 different languages are spoken in our 44 schools. Buncombe County rests in a central area of a high plateau bordered by the Blue Ridge, Great Craggy, and Black Mountains on the East and the Great Smokies chain of the Appalachians on the West. Sprawling over seven hundred and seventy square miles of valley lowlands and mountain coves, Buncombe County is home to over 206,000 residents. Asheville, located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa Rivers, is the county seat as well as the economic and cultural center of Western North Carolina. Buncombe County enjoys a broadly based economy supported by a thriving tourist and convention enterprise, widely diversified industry, forestry and agriculture.