Bristol County area

Population and density of Bristol County

The Census Bureau estimates that 593,640 people lived in Bristol County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #119 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #6 of 14 in Massachusetts. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 579,295, the population has grown by 14,345 (+2.5%), compared with +1.7% for Massachusetts as a whole.

With 553.1 square miles of land, that is 1,073 people per square mile (414 per km²), placing Bristol County #176 nationally for density and #5 in Massachusetts. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Massachusetts median is 673. Put another way, there are about 0.596 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 Bristol County

Bristol County is divided into 20 cities and towns. In Massachusetts, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is New Bedford city, with 101,834 residents (17.2% of the county). The largest by land is Dartmouth town, at 60.9 mi², or 11% of the county’s land. The county seat, Taunton city, has 62,522 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Raynham town grew fastest since then (+9.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Bristol County is a central county of the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 6 county equivalents have 1,708,161 residents on 1,587 square miles of land; Bristol County accounts for 34.9% of the land and 34.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #211 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #40 by population. It belongs to the Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

36 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Bristol County; 35 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

020480235602357023750270202703027150271702718027190272002721027230272402725027260274002743027440274502746027470274802760027630276402766027670276902771027770277902780027900279102861

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 Bristol County

Bristol County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 3 in Rhode Island. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Plymouth County (658.5 mi²) and the smallest is Bristol County (24.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Bristol County forms a block of 2,143.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 25.8%.

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

Bristol County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. Massachusetts’s county land could hold about 14 areas the size of Bristol County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.5 miles (37.8 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 Bristol County?

Bristol County has more land than 1,337 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 Bristol County at #1,462 nationally by total area, 423 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 20%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 18.8 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 Bristol 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.