Yavapai County area

Population and density of Yavapai County

The Census Bureau estimates that 252,552 people lived in Yavapai County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #293 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #4 of 15 in Arizona. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 236,210, the population has grown by 16,342 (+6.9%), compared with +6.5% for Arizona as a whole.

With 8,122.9 square miles of land, that is 31 people per square mile (12 per km²), placing Yavapai County #1,972 nationally for density and #6 in Arizona. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Arizona median is 17. Put another way, there are about 21 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 Yavapai County

11 incorporated places lie at least partly in Yavapai County. Together they are home to 158,603 people (62.8%); the other 93,949 (37.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Prescott Valley town, with 52,423 residents in the county. The county seat, Prescott city, has 48,420 residents. By land, Peoria city is the largest at 177.4 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Prescott Valley town grew fastest since then (+12.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Yavapai County is a central county of the Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ Metropolitan Statistical Area. Yavapai County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 8,122.9 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #16 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #197 by population.

ZIP codes

31 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Yavapai County; 28 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

85324853328534285362853908630186303863058631386314863158632086321863228632386324863258632686327863298633186332863338633486335863368633786338863438635186434

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 Yavapai County

Yavapai County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Coconino County (18,616.4 mi²) and the smallest is La Paz County (4,496.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Yavapai County forms a block of 58,527.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.9%.

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

Yavapai County has more land than 6 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Massachusetts (7,801 mi²), while New Hampshire, the next larger state, has 1.1 times as much land (8,954 mi²). Arizona’s county land could hold about 14 areas the size of Yavapai County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 90.1 miles (145 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 Yavapai County?

Yavapai County has more land than 3,187 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 Yavapai County at #41 nationally by total area, 6 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% — 1.1 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 Yavapai 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.