Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and continues to grow. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Asheville's population in 2008 was 78,543. Asheville is a part of the four-county Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area, the population of which was estimated by the Census Bureau in 2008 to be 408,436.