Houghton County area

Population and density of Houghton County

The Census Bureau estimates that 37,842 people lived in Houghton County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,273 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #42 of 83 in Michigan. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 37,370, the population has grown by 472 (+1.3%), compared with +0.5% for Michigan as a whole.

With 1,009.1 square miles of land, that is 38 people per square mile (14 per km²), placing Houghton County #1,813 nationally for density and #59 in Michigan. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Michigan median is 62. Put another way, there are about 17 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 Houghton County

Houghton County is divided into 16 municipalities and townships. In Michigan, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Houghton city, with 8,560 residents (22.6% of the county). The largest by land is Laird township, at 187.3 mi², or 18.6% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Houghton city grew fastest since then (+2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Houghton County is a central county of the Houghton, MI Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 40,028 residents on 1,549.2 square miles of land; Houghton County accounts for 65.1% of the land and 94.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #105 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #321 by population.

ZIP codes

20 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Houghton County; 17 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4980549905499134991649917499214992249930499314993449942499454994849952499554995849961499634996549967

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 Houghton County

Houghton County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Ontonagon County (1,311 mi²) and the smallest is Keweenaw County (540.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Houghton County forms a block of 4,924.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 20.5%.

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

Houghton 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 times as much. Michigan’s county land could hold about 56 areas the size of Houghton County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 31.8 miles (51.1 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 Houghton County?

Houghton County has more land than 2,552 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 Houghton County at #450 nationally by total area, 220 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 32.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 31.6 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 Houghton 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.