Anoka County area

Population and density of Anoka County

The Census Bureau estimates that 381,605 people lived in Anoka County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #202 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #4 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 363,885, the population has grown by 17,720 (+4.9%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 422 square miles of land, that is 904 people per square mile (349 per km²), placing Anoka County #203 nationally for density and #3 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 0.708 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 Anoka County

Anoka County is divided into 21 municipalities and townships. In Minnesota, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Blaine city, with 76,603 residents (20.1% of the county). The largest by land is Columbus city, at 44.8 mi², or 10.6% of the county’s land. The county seat, Anoka city, has 18,169 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Lexington city grew fastest since then (+36.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Anoka County is a central county of the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 15 county equivalents have 3,790,295 residents on 7,047.6 square miles of land; Anoka County accounts for 6% of the land and 10.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #26 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #16 by population. It belongs to the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

20 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Anoka County; 14 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

5500555011550145502555038550405507055079550925511055126553035530455330554215543255433554345544855449

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 Anoka County

Anoka County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Hennepin County (554 mi²) and the smallest is Ramsey County (152.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Anoka County forms a block of 2,796.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.1%.

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

Anoka County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.5 times as much. Minnesota’s county land could hold about 189 areas the size of Anoka County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.5 miles (33.1 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 Anoka County?

Anoka County has more land than 821 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 Anoka County at #2,356 nationally by total area, 45 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 5.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 4.2 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 Anoka 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.