Hampden County area

Population and density of Hampden County

The Census Bureau estimates that 464,338 people lived in Hampden County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #160 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #8 of 14 in Massachusetts. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 465,818, the population has declined by 1,480 (−0.3%), compared with +1.7% for Massachusetts as a whole.

With 617 square miles of land, that is 753 people per square mile (291 per km²), placing Hampden County #244 nationally for density and #7 in Massachusetts. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Massachusetts median is 673. Put another way, there are about 0.85 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 Hampden County

Hampden County is divided into 23 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 Springfield city, with 154,702 residents (33.3% of the county). The largest by land is Blandford town, at 51.6 mi², or 8.4% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Ludlow town grew fastest since then (+1.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Hampden County is a central county of the Springfield, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Hampden County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 617 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #334 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #119 by population. It belongs to the Springfield-Amherst Town-Northampton, MA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

42 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Hampden County; 39 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

010010100801009010100101101013010200102201028010300103401036010400105001056010570106901071010770107901080010810108201085010890109501097011030110401105011060110701108011090111801119011280112901144011510122301521

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 Hampden County

Hampden County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 3 in Connecticut. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Worcester County (1,510.7 mi²) and the smallest is Hampshire County (527.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Hampden County forms a block of 5,949.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.4%.

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

Hampden County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.7 times as much. Massachusetts’s county land could hold about 13 areas the size of Hampden County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.8 miles (40 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 Hampden County?

Hampden County has more land than 1,653 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 Hampden County at #1,632 nationally by total area, 63 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 2.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.5 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 Hampden 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.