Webster County area

Population and density of Webster County

The Census Bureau estimates that 36,838 people lived in Webster County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,302 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 99 in Iowa. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 37,002, the population has declined by 164 (−0.4%), compared with +1.5% for Iowa as a whole.

With 715.7 square miles of land, that is 51 people per square mile (20 per km²), placing Webster County #1,519 nationally for density and #22 in Iowa. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Iowa median is 26. Put another way, there are about 12 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 Webster County

15 incorporated places lie at least partly in Webster County. Together they are home to 29,531 people (80.2%); the other 7,307 (19.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Fort Dodge city, with 24,837 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Webster County is a central county of the Fort Dodge, IA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Webster County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 715.7 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #298 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #369 by population.

ZIP codes

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

50249505015051650518505215052350524505305053250533505385054350544505485055750563505665056950586505915059450595

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 Webster County

Webster County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Wright County (580.4 mi²) and the smallest is Humboldt County (434.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Webster County forms a block of 4,594.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.6%.

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

Webster County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. Iowa’s county land could hold about 78 areas the size of Webster County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.8 miles (43.1 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 Webster County?

Webster County has more land than 1,954 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 Webster County at #1,375 nationally by total area, 107 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Webster 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.