Kern County area

Population and density of Kern County

The Census Bureau estimates that 927,068 people lived in Kern County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #62 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #11 of 58 in California. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 909,227, the population has grown by 17,841 (+2%), compared with −0.5% for California as a whole.

With 8,134.7 square miles of land, that is 114 people per square mile (44 per km²), placing Kern County #911 nationally for density and #28 in California. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the California median is 112. Put another way, there are about 5.6 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 Kern County

11 incorporated places lie at least partly in Kern County. Together they are home to 620,922 people (67%); the other 306,146 (33%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bakersfield city, with 422,165 residents in the county. By land, California City city is the largest at 203.6 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Shafter city grew fastest since then (+19.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Kern County is a central county of the Bakersfield-Delano, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Kern County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 8,134.7 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #15 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #63 by population.

ZIP codes

53 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Kern County; 47 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

9320393205932069321593220932229322493225932269323893240932419324393249932509325193252932559326393268932769328093283932859328793301933049330593306933079330893309933119331293313933149346193501935059351693518935199352393524935279352893531935369355493555935609356193581

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 Kern County

Kern County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is San Bernardino County (20,068.4 mi²) and the smallest is Kings County (1,391 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Kern County forms a block of 56,551.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.4%.

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

Kern 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). California’s county land could hold about 19 areas the size of Kern County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 90.2 miles (145.2 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 Kern County?

Kern County has more land than 3,188 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 Kern County at #40 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Kern 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.