Western Connecticut Planning Region area

Population and density of Western Connecticut Planning Region

The Census Bureau estimates that 640,482 people lived in Western Connecticut Planning Region on July 1, 2025. That ranks #112 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #2 of 9 in Connecticut. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 620,900, the population has grown by 19,582 (+3.2%), compared with +2.2% for Connecticut as a whole.

With 532.1 square miles of land, that is 1,204 people per square mile (465 per km²), placing Western Connecticut Planning Region #151 nationally for density and #3 in Connecticut. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Connecticut median is 968. Put another way, there are about 0.532 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 Western Connecticut Planning Region

Western Connecticut Planning Region is divided into 18 cities and towns. In Connecticut, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Stamford town, with 139,535 residents (21.8% of the county). The largest by land is New Milford town, at 61.6 mi², or 11.6% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Bethel town grew fastest since then (+6.4%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each subdivision inside Western Connecticut Planning Region. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Western Connecticut Planning Region is a central county of the Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 978,179 residents on 672.3 square miles of land; Western Connecticut Planning Region accounts for 79.1% of the land and 65.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #329 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #59 by population. It belongs to the New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

35 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Western Connecticut Planning Region; 34 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

0647006482067520675506776067840679406801068040680706810068110681206820068300683106840068500685106853068540685506870068770687806880068830689606897069010690206903069050690606907

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. Connecticut areas are assigned through their towns, because planning regions replaced the state’s counties after 2020.

Counties bordering Western Connecticut Planning Region

Western Connecticut Planning Region shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 3 in New York. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Dutchess County (795.6 mi²) and the smallest is Greater Bridgeport Planning Region (140.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Western Connecticut Planning Region forms a block of 3,328.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 16%.

How big is Western Connecticut Planning Region compared with U.S. states?

Western Connecticut Planning Region has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. Connecticut’s county land could hold about 9.1 areas the size of Western Connecticut Planning Region.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.1 miles (37.1 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 Western Connecticut Planning Region?

Western Connecticut Planning Region has more land than 1,258 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 Western Connecticut Planning Region at #1,584 nationally by total area, 380 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 17.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 16.7 percentage points higher. 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 Western Connecticut Planning Region 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.