Marquette County area

Population and density of Marquette County

The Census Bureau estimates that 68,064 people lived in Marquette County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #816 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #28 of 83 in Michigan. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 66,542, the population has grown by 1,522 (+2.3%), compared with +0.5% for Michigan as a whole.

With 1,809.1 square miles of land, that is 38 people per square mile (15 per km²), placing Marquette County #1,807 nationally for density and #58 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 Marquette County

Marquette County is divided into 22 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 Marquette city, with 21,944 residents (32.2% of the county). The largest by land is Forsyth township, at 177.8 mi², or 9.8% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Marquette city grew fastest since then (+3.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Marquette County is a central county of the Marquette, MI Micropolitan Statistical Area. Marquette County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 1,809.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #88 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #118 by population.

ZIP codes

15 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Marquette County; 12 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

498084981449818498224983149833498414984949855498614986649871498794988049885

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 Marquette County

Marquette County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Delta County (1,171.1 mi²) and the smallest is Dickinson County (761 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Marquette County forms a block of 7,764.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 23.3%.

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

Marquette County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.7 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.1 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Michigan’s county land could hold about 31 areas the size of Marquette County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 42.5 miles (68.5 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 Marquette County?

Marquette County has more land than 2,896 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 Marquette County at #158 nationally by total area, 168 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 47.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 46 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 Marquette 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.