Clay County area

Population and density of Clay County

The Census Bureau estimates that 67,734 people lived in Clay County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #819 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #16 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 65,318, the population has grown by 2,416 (+3.7%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 1,045.2 square miles of land, that is 65 people per square mile (25 per km²), placing Clay County #1,325 nationally for density and #23 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 9.9 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 Clay County

Clay County is divided into 41 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 Moorhead city, with 46,533 residents (68.7% of the county). The largest by land is Kragnes township, at 38.2 mi², or 3.7% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Glyndon city grew fastest since then (+6.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Clay County is a central county of the Fargo, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 269,528 residents on 2,810.1 square miles of land; Clay County accounts for 37.2% of the land and 25.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #107 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #188 by population. It belongs to the Fargo-Wahpeton, ND-MN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

17 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Clay County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

5651456519565255652956536565465654756549565525655456560565625656356572565745658056585

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 Clay County

Clay County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in North Dakota. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Otter Tail County (1,971.6 mi²) and the smallest is Wilkin County (751 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Clay County forms a block of 9,156.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.4%.

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

Clay County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.9 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Minnesota’s county land could hold about 76 areas the size of Clay County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 32.3 miles (52 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 Clay County?

Clay County has more land than 2,598 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 Clay County at #718 nationally by total area, 94 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 0.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 percentage points lower. 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 Clay 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.