Lake County area

Population and density of Lake County

The Census Bureau estimates that 67,772 people lived in Lake County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #818 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #41 of 58 in California. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 68,162, the population has declined by 390 (−0.6%), compared with −0.5% for California as a whole.

With 1,255.1 square miles of land, that is 54 people per square mile (21 per km²), placing Lake County #1,477 nationally for density and #37 in California. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the California median is 112. Put another way, there are about 12 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 Lake County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lake County. Together they are home to 21,952 people (32.4%); the other 45,820 (67.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Clearlake city, with 16,893 residents in the county. The county seat, Lakeport city, has 5,059 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Clearlake city grew fastest since then (+1.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Lake County is a central county of the Clearlake, CA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Lake County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 1,255.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #135 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #120 by population.

ZIP codes

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

954229542395426954359544395451954539545795458954619546495467954699548595493

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 Lake County

Lake County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Mendocino County (3,506.8 mi²) and the smallest is Napa County (752 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lake County forms a block of 10,566.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.9%.

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

Lake County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.2 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.6 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). California’s county land could hold about 124 areas the size of Lake County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 35.4 miles (57 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 Lake County?

Lake County has more land than 2,738 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 Lake County at #517 nationally by total area, 33 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 5.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 4.3 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 Lake 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.