Sutter County area

Population and density of Sutter County

The Census Bureau estimates that 98,787 people lived in Sutter County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #637 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #37 of 58 in California. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 99,632, the population has declined by 845 (−0.8%), compared with −0.5% for California as a whole.

With 602.7 square miles of land, that is 164 people per square mile (63 per km²), placing Sutter County #732 nationally for density and #22 in California. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the California median is 112. Put another way, there are about 3.9 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 Sutter County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Sutter County. Together they are home to 78,951 people (79.9%); the other 19,836 (20.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Yuba City city, with 69,485 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Live Oak city grew fastest since then (+3.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Sutter County is a central county of the Yuba City, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 187,478 residents on 1,234.7 square miles of land; Sutter County accounts for 48.8% of the land and 52.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #253 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #246 by population. It belongs to the Sacramento-Roseville, CA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

14 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Sutter County; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

9562695645956599566895674956769569295837959489595395957959829599195993

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 Sutter County

Sutter County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Sutter County. The largest neighbor is Butte County (1,636.5 mi²) and the smallest is Yuba County (632 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Sutter County forms a block of 7,407.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.1%.

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

Sutter County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.7 times as much. California’s county land could hold about 259 areas the size of Sutter County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.5 miles (39.5 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 Sutter County?

Sutter County has more land than 1,603 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 Sutter County at #1,716 nationally by total area, 97 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 0.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Sutter 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.