Stokes County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 47,401. Its county seat is Danbury.Stokes County is included in the Winston-Salem, N.C., Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, N.C., Combined Statistical Area.HistoryThe county was formed in 1789 from Surry County. It was named for John Stokes, an American Revolutionary War captain severely wounded when British Colonel Banastre Tarleton's cavalry practically destroyed Col. Abraham Buford's Virginia regiment in the Waxhaws region in 1780. After the war, Captain Stokes was appointed a judge of the United States district court for North Carolina. In 1849 the southern half of Stokes County became Forsyth County.