Clear Creek County area

Population and density of Clear Creek County

The Census Bureau estimates that 8,994 people lived in Clear Creek County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,565 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #39 of 64 in Colorado. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 9,364, the population has declined by 370 (−4%), compared with +4.1% for Colorado as a whole.

With 395.1 square miles of land, that is 23 people per square mile (8.8 per km²), placing Clear Creek County #2,213 nationally for density and #22 in Colorado. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Colorado median is 11. Put another way, there are about 28 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 Clear Creek County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Clear Creek County. Together they are home to 3,556 people (39.5%); the other 5,438 (60.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Idaho Springs city, with 1,842 residents in the county. The county seat, Georgetown town, has 1,217 residents. By land, Central city is the largest at 2.784 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Georgetown town grew fastest since then (+8.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Clear Creek County is an outlying county of the Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 10 county equivalents have 3,092,037 residents on 8,344.7 square miles of land; Clear Creek County accounts for 4.7% of the land and 0.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #14 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #19 by population. It belongs to the Denver-Aurora-Greeley, CO Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

6 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Clear Creek County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

804368043880439804448045280476

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Clear Creek County

Clear Creek County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Park County (2,193.5 mi²) and the smallest is Gilpin County (150 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Clear Creek County forms a block of 5,958 mi² of land, of which it holds 6.6%.

How big is Clear Creek County compared with U.S. states?

Clear Creek County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.6 times as much. Colorado’s county land could hold about 262 areas the size of Clear Creek County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 19.9 miles (32 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 Clear Creek County?

Clear Creek County has more land than 672 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 Clear Creek County at #2,617 nationally by total area, 67 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 Clear Creek 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.