Denver County area

Population and density of Denver County

The Census Bureau estimates that 740,613 people lived in Denver County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #94 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #2 of 64 in Colorado. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 715,509, the population has grown by 25,104 (+3.5%), compared with +4.1% for Colorado as a whole.

With 153.1 square miles of land, that is 4,838 people per square mile (1,868 per km²), placing Denver County #21 nationally for density and #1 in Colorado. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Colorado median is 11. Put another way, there are about 0.132 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 Denver County

Every resident of Denver County lives within Denver city. The city and the county equivalent cover the same territory, 153.1 square miles of land in the 2026 place Gazetteer, so there are no separate towns or unincorporated areas to list.

Metropolitan area

Denver County is a central 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; Denver County accounts for 1.8% of the land and 24% 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

41 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Denver County; 31 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

8001280014801108012380202802038020480205802068020780209802108021180212802148021680218802198022080221802228022380224802268022780230802318023280235802368023780238802398024680247802498026480266802908029380294

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 Denver County

Denver County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Denver County. The largest neighbor is Adams County (1,166.8 mi²) and the smallest is Jefferson County (764.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Denver County forms a block of 2,882.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 5.3%.

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

Denver County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6.8 times as much. Colorado’s county land could hold about 677 areas the size of Denver County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 12.4 miles (19.9 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 Denver County?

Denver County has more land than 167 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 Denver County at #3,080 nationally by total area, 25 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 1.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.1 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 Denver 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.