Aroostook County area

Population and density of Aroostook County

The Census Bureau estimates that 66,609 people lived in Aroostook County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #834 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #6 of 16 in Maine. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 67,091, the population has declined by 482 (−0.7%), compared with +3.8% for Maine as a whole.

With 6,671.2 square miles of land, that is 10 people per square mile (3.9 per km²), placing Aroostook County #2,644 nationally for density and #15 in Maine. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Maine median is 51. Put another way, there are about 64 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 Aroostook County

Aroostook County is divided into 71 cities and towns. In Maine, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Presque Isle city, with 8,694 residents (13.1% of the county). The largest by land is Northwest Aroostook UT, at 2,617.6 mi², or 39.2% of the county’s land. The county seat, Houlton town, has 6,056 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Fort Kent town grew fastest since then (+2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Aroostook County is not part of any metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area in the Office of Management and Budget’s July 2023 delineation; 1,306 other county equivalents are also outside one. These areas are built around an urban core of at least 10,000 people plus the counties tied to it by commuting, so counties outside them are generally rural.

ZIP codes

42 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Aroostook County; 41 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

044240445104459044710449704730047320473304734047350473604737047390474004742047430474504746047470475004756047570475804760047610476204763047640476604768047690477204773047740477604779047800478104783047850478604787

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 Aroostook County

Aroostook County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Piscataquis County (3,960.8 mi²) and the smallest is Washington County (2,562.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Aroostook County forms a block of 20,516.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 32.5%.

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

Aroostook County has more land than 4 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Hawaii (6,422.6 mi²), while New Jersey, the next larger state, has 1.1 times as much land (7,355 mi²). Maine’s county land could hold about 4.6 areas the size of Aroostook County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 81.7 miles (131.4 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 Aroostook County?

Aroostook County has more land than 3,173 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 Aroostook County at #53 nationally by total area, 4 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 2.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 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 Aroostook 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.