Tulare County area

Population and density of Tulare County

The Census Bureau estimates that 485,146 people lived in Tulare County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #153 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 58 in California. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 473,118, the population has grown by 12,028 (+2.5%), compared with −0.5% for California as a whole.

With 4,823.9 square miles of land, that is 101 people per square mile (39 per km²), placing Tulare County #993 nationally for density and #33 in California. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the California median is 112. Put another way, there are about 6.4 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 Tulare County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Tulare County. Together they are home to 350,584 people (72.3%); the other 134,562 (27.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Visalia city, with 146,541 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Woodlake city grew fastest since then (+8.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Tulare County is a central county of the Visalia, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Tulare County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 4,823.9 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #54 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #115 by population.

ZIP codes

45 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Tulare County; 40 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

932019320793208932129321593218932199322193223932279323093235932379323893244932479325693257932589326093261932629326593267932709327193272932749327793286932919329293527936039361593618936319363393641936469364793654936669367093673

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 Tulare County

Tulare County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Inyo County (10,197.3 mi²) and the smallest is Kings County (1,391 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Tulare County forms a block of 30,505.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.8%.

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

Tulare County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 2.5 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). California’s county land could hold about 32 areas the size of Tulare County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 69.5 miles (111.8 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 Tulare County?

Tulare County has more land than 3,136 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 Tulare County at #91 nationally by total area, 5 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 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 Tulare 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.