Allegany County area

Population and density of Allegany County

The Census Bureau estimates that 66,848 people lived in Allegany County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #828 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #16 of 24 in Maryland. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 68,110, the population has declined by 1,262 (−1.9%), compared with +1.4% for Maryland as a whole.

With 422.2 square miles of land, that is 158 people per square mile (61 per km²), placing Allegany County #749 nationally for density and #16 in Maryland. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Maryland median is 335. Put another way, there are about 4 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 Allegany County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Allegany County. Together they are home to 29,521 people (44.2%); the other 37,327 (55.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Cumberland city, with 18,799 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Allegany County is a central county of the Cumberland, MD-WV Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 93,640 residents on 750.1 square miles of land; Allegany County accounts for 56.3% of the land and 71.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #287 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #45 by population.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Allegany County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

21502215212152421529215302153221539215402154221543215452155521557215602156221766

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 Allegany County

Allegany County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents, including 6 in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Somerset County (1,075 mi²) and the smallest is Morgan County (229.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Allegany County forms a block of 5,251 mi² of land, of which it holds 8%.

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

Allegany County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.4 times as much. Maryland’s county land could hold about 23 areas the size of Allegany County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.5 miles (33.1 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 Allegany County?

Allegany County has more land than 823 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 Allegany County at #2,455 nationally by total area, 56 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 1.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Allegany 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.