Butte County area

Population and density of Butte County

The Census Bureau estimates that 209,211 people lived in Butte County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #347 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #28 of 58 in California. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 211,629, the population has declined by 2,418 (−1.1%), compared with −0.5% for California as a whole.

With 1,636.5 square miles of land, that is 128 people per square mile (49 per km²), placing Butte County #844 nationally for density and #27 in California. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the California median is 112. Put another way, there are about 5 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 Butte County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Butte County. Together they are home to 144,740 people (69.2%); the other 64,471 (30.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Chico city, with 105,081 residents in the county. The county seat, Oroville city, has 20,451 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Paradise town grew fastest since then (+110.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Butte County is a central county of the Chico, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Butte County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 1,636.5 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #199 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #228 by population.

ZIP codes

21 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Butte County; 20 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

959019591495916959179592695928959299593095938959419594295948959549595895965959669596895969959739597495978

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 Butte County

Butte County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Tehama County (2,949.1 mi²) and the smallest is Sutter County (602.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Butte County forms a block of 10,838 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.1%.

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

Butte County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.6 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.2 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). California’s county land could hold about 95 areas the size of Butte County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 40.5 miles (65.1 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 Butte County?

Butte County has more land than 2,852 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 Butte County at #401 nationally by total area, 31 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 2.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.3 percentage points higher. 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 Butte 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.