Saint Matthew's Township (also designated Township 17) is one of twenty townships within Wake County, North Carolina

Wake County, North Carolina

Wake County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 900,993 making it North Carolina's second most populated county...

. As of the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

, Saint Matthew's Township had a population of 44,631, a 65.4% increase over 1990, and a population density of 1.10 people per acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

 (272/km²).

Saint Matthew's Township, occupying 40,448 acres (164 km²)in east-central Wake County, includes portions of the city of Raleigh

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

 and the entirety of the town of Knightdale

Knightdale, North Carolina

Knightdale is a town and suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina in Wake County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 5,958 at the 2000 census, and estimated at 9,843 in January 2008. With the population boom experienced in the North Carolina Research Triangle area in the past two decades,...

.