Elbert County area

Population and density of Elbert County

The Census Bureau estimates that 30,534 people lived in Elbert County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,468 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #20 of 64 in Colorado. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 26,050, the population has grown by 4,484 (+17.2%), compared with +4.1% for Colorado as a whole.

With 1,850.8 square miles of land, that is 16 people per square mile (6.4 per km²), placing Elbert County #2,430 nationally for density and #28 in Colorado. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Colorado median is 11. Put another way, there are about 39 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 Elbert County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Elbert County. Together they are home to 4,282 people (14%); the other 26,252 (86%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Elizabeth town, with 2,957 residents in the county. The county seat, Kiowa town, has 738 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Elbert 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; Elbert County accounts for 22.2% of the land and 1% 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

14 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Elbert County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

8010180102801058010680107801178013880808808288083080831808328083380835

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 Elbert County

Elbert County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Lincoln County (2,577.7 mi²) and the smallest is Arapahoe County (797.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Elbert County forms a block of 8,193 mi² of land, of which it holds 22.6%.

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

Elbert County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.8 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.1 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Colorado’s county land could hold about 56 areas the size of Elbert County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 43 miles (69.2 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 Elbert County?

Elbert County has more land than 2,908 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 Elbert County at #356 nationally by total area, 42 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.2 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 Elbert 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.