Kernersville is a town in Forsyth County, North Carolina, Unite States. The population was 17,126 at the 2000 census, and a local census in 2005 demonstrated that the city's population had grown to 20,052. Kernersville is located at the heart of the Piedmont Triad metropolitan area, which consists of the cities of Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem. Although Kernersville has traditionally been considered a suburb of Winston-Salem, the arrival of new industries (particularly the Dell Computer plant), has given the city a booming population and a character all its own. Much of the rural farmland surrounding the town has been sold and turned into upper-class housing developments, and numerous shopping centers have been built in the town over the past few years.