Chisago County area

Population and density of Chisago County

The Census Bureau estimates that 59,142 people lived in Chisago County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #915 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 56,624, the population has grown by 2,518 (+4.4%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 414.9 square miles of land, that is 143 people per square mile (55 per km²), placing Chisago County #799 nationally for density and #11 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 4.5 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 Chisago County

Chisago County is divided into 18 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 North Branch city, with 12,398 residents (21% of the county). The largest by land is Sunrise township, at 45 mi², or 10.9% of the county’s land. The county seat, Center City city, has 634 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, North Branch city grew fastest since then (+14.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Chisago County is an outlying 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; Chisago County accounts for 5.9% of the land and 1.6% 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

15 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Chisago County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

550065500855012550135502555032550455505655069550735507455079550805508455092

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 Chisago County

Chisago County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Wisconsin. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Pine County (1,411.3 mi²) and the smallest is Washington County (384.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Chisago County forms a block of 4,804.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.6%.

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

Chisago 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 192 areas the size of Chisago County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.4 miles (32.8 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 Chisago County?

Chisago County has more land than 784 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 Chisago County at #2,379 nationally by total area, 59 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 6.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 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 Chisago 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.