Pinal County area

Population and density of Pinal County

The Census Bureau estimates that 539,380 people lived in Pinal County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #137 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 15 in Arizona. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 425,993, the population has grown by 113,387 (+26.6%), compared with +6.5% for Arizona as a whole.

With 5,366.7 square miles of land, that is 101 people per square mile (39 per km²), placing Pinal County #994 nationally for density and #3 in Arizona. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Arizona median is 17. Put another way, there are about 6.4 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 Pinal County

13 incorporated places lie at least partly in Pinal County. Together they are home to 279,370 people (51.8%); the other 260,010 (48.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Maricopa city, with 78,362 residents in the county. The county seat, Florence town, has 25,222 residents. By land, Marana town is the largest at 121.7 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Queen Creek town grew fastest since then (+66.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Pinal County is a central county of the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 5,228,938 residents on 14,568.7 square miles of land; Pinal County accounts for 36.8% of the land and 10.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #4 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #10 by population. It belongs to the Phoenix-Mesa, AZ Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

35 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Pinal County; 29 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

8511885119851208512185122851238512885131851328513785138851398514085141851428514385145851478517285173851918519285193851948521285248853398553985618856238563185634856538565885739

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 Pinal County

Pinal County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Maricopa County (9,202 mi²) and the smallest is Graham County (4,621.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Pinal County forms a block of 33,136.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.2%.

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

Pinal County has more land than 3 of the 50 states. It is about 1.1 times the land area of Connecticut (4,842.5 mi²), while Hawaii, the next larger state, has 1.2 times as much land (6,422.6 mi²). Arizona’s county land could hold about 21 areas the size of Pinal County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 73.3 miles (117.9 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 Pinal County?

Pinal County has more land than 3,152 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 Pinal County at #75 nationally by total area, 5 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 0.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 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 Pinal 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.