Somerset County area

Population and density of Somerset County

The Census Bureau estimates that 24,973 people lived in Somerset County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,669 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #23 of 24 in Maryland. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 24,615, the population has grown by 358 (+1.5%), compared with +1.4% for Maryland as a whole.

With 319.7 square miles of land, that is 78 people per square mile (30 per km²), placing Somerset County #1,180 nationally for density and #21 in Maryland. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Maryland median is 335. Put another way, there are about 8.2 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 Somerset County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Somerset County. Together they are home to 6,197 people (24.8%); the other 18,776 (75.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Princess Anne town, with 3,642 residents in the county. By land, Crisfield city is the largest at 1.736 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Princess Anne town grew fastest since then (+4.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Somerset County is an outlying county of the Salisbury, MD Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 131,872 residents on 694.2 square miles of land; Somerset County accounts for 46.1% of the land and 18.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #323 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #319 by population. It belongs to the Salisbury-Ocean Pines, MD Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Somerset County; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2181721821218222182421838218512185321866218672187121890

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 Somerset County

Somerset County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents, including 1 in Virginia. Each of them has more land than Somerset County. The largest neighbor is Worcester County (468.3 mi²) and the smallest is Wicomico County (374.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Somerset County forms a block of 1,611.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.8%.

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

Somerset County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.2 times as much. Maryland’s county land could hold about 30 areas the size of Somerset County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17.9 miles (28.8 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 Somerset County?

Somerset County has more land than 459 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 Somerset County at #1,711 nationally by total area, 1,052 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 47.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 46.4 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 Somerset 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.