Gilpin County area

Population and density of Gilpin County

The Census Bureau estimates that 6,073 people lived in Gilpin County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,800 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #47 of 64 in Colorado. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 5,803, the population has grown by 270 (+4.7%), compared with +4.1% for Colorado as a whole.

With 150 square miles of land, that is 40 people per square mile (16 per km²), placing Gilpin County #1,743 nationally for density and #15 in Colorado. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Colorado median is 11. Put another way, there are about 16 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 Gilpin County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Gilpin County. Together they are home to 927 people (15.3%); the other 5,146 (84.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Central city, with 807 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). By land, Black Hawk city is the largest at 3.12 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Gilpin 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; Gilpin County accounts for 1.8% of the land and 0.2% 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

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Gilpin County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

8040380422804278045280474

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 Gilpin County

Gilpin County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Gilpin County. The largest neighbor is Grand County (1,846.6 mi²) and the smallest is Clear Creek County (395.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Gilpin County forms a block of 3,882.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 3.9%.

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

Gilpin County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6.9 times as much. Colorado’s county land could hold about 691 areas the size of Gilpin County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 12.2 miles (19.7 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 Gilpin County?

Gilpin County has more land than 161 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 Gilpin County at #3,082 nationally by total area, 21 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 0.2%, 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 Gilpin 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.