Garfield County area

Population and density of Garfield County

The Census Bureau estimates that 63,474 people lived in Garfield County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #872 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #13 of 64 in Colorado. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 61,686, the population has grown by 1,788 (+2.9%), compared with +4.1% for Colorado as a whole.

With 2,947.4 square miles of land, that is 22 people per square mile (8.3 per km²), placing Garfield County #2,271 nationally for density and #23 in Colorado. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Colorado median is 11. Put another way, there are about 30 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 Garfield County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Garfield County. Together they are home to 38,006 people (59.9%); the other 25,468 (40.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Rifle city, with 10,844 residents in the county. The county seat, Glenwood Springs city, has 10,395 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Silt town grew fastest since then (+5.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Garfield County is a central county of the Rifle, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 80,099 residents on 3,918.1 square miles of land; Garfield County accounts for 75.2% of the land and 79.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #37 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #75 by population. It belongs to the Edwards-Rifle, CO Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Garfield County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

8160181623816308163581637816478165081652

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 Garfield County

Garfield County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 2 in Utah. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Uintah County (4,482.9 mi²) and the smallest is Pitkin County (970.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Garfield County forms a block of 22,670 mi² of land, of which it holds 13%.

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

Garfield County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.5 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1.6 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Colorado’s county land could hold about 35 areas the size of Garfield County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 54.3 miles (87.4 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 Garfield County?

Garfield County has more land than 3,046 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 Garfield County at #191 nationally by total area, 15 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 Garfield 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.