Gila County area

Population and density of Gila County

The Census Bureau estimates that 53,801 people lived in Gila County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #979 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #11 of 15 in Arizona. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 53,268, the population has grown by 533 (+1%), compared with +6.5% for Arizona as a whole.

With 4,757.6 square miles of land, that is 11 people per square mile (4.4 per km²), placing Gila County #2,595 nationally for density and #9 in Arizona. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Arizona median is 17. Put another way, there are about 57 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Gila County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Gila County. Together they are home to 28,734 people (53.4%); the other 25,067 (46.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Payson town, with 16,693 residents in the county. The county seat, Globe city, has 7,191 residents. By land, Star Valley town is the largest at 36.1 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Star Valley town grew fastest since then (+2.2%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Gila County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Gila County is a central county of the Payson, AZ Micropolitan Statistical Area. Gila County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 4,757.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #26 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #203 by population. It belongs to the Phoenix-Mesa, AZ Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

14 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Gila County; 10 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

8513585192852648550185532855398554185542855448554585550855538555485941

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Gila County

Gila County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Coconino County (18,616.4 mi²) and the smallest is Graham County (4,621.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Gila County forms a block of 60,637 mi² of land, of which it holds 7.8%.

How big is Gila County compared with U.S. states?

Gila County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 2.4 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Arizona’s county land could hold about 24 areas the size of Gila County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 69 miles (111 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Gila County?

Gila County has more land than 3,132 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Gila County at #94 nationally by total area, 4 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Gila County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.