Tuolumne County area

Population and density of Tuolumne County

The Census Bureau estimates that 53,160 people lived in Tuolumne County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #988 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #43 of 58 in California. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 55,612, the population has declined by 2,452 (−4.4%), compared with −0.5% for California as a whole.

With 2,220.9 square miles of land, that is 24 people per square mile (9.2 per km²), placing Tuolumne County #2,175 nationally for density and #45 in California. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the California median is 112. Put another way, there are about 27 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 Tuolumne County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Tuolumne County. Together they are home to 4,866 people (9.2%); the other 48,294 (90.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Sonora city, with 4,866 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Tuolumne County is a central county of the Sonora, CA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Tuolumne County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 2,220.9 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #69 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #205 by population.

ZIP codes

17 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Tuolumne County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

9522395305953099531095311953219532795329953359534695364953709537295375953799538395389

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 Tuolumne County

Tuolumne County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Mono County (3,048.9 mi²) and the smallest is Alpine County (738.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Tuolumne County forms a block of 12,109.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.3%.

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

Tuolumne County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.1 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 2.2 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). California’s county land could hold about 70 areas the size of Tuolumne County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 47.1 miles (75.8 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 Tuolumne County?

Tuolumne County has more land than 2,968 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 Tuolumne County at #272 nationally by total area, 18 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% — 1.2 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 Tuolumne 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.