Dodge County area

Population and density of Dodge County

The Census Bureau estimates that 21,376 people lived in Dodge County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,815 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #48 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 20,872, the population has grown by 504 (+2.4%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 439.4 square miles of land, that is 49 people per square mile (19 per km²), placing Dodge County #1,579 nationally for density and #28 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 13 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 Dodge County

Dodge County is divided into 19 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 Kasson city, with 7,350 residents (34.4% of the county). The largest by land is Ashland township, at 37.2 mi², or 8.5% of the county’s land. The county seat, Mantorville township, has 1,858 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Kasson city grew fastest since then (+6.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Dodge County is an outlying county of the Rochester, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 231,184 residents on 2,477.2 square miles of land; Dodge County accounts for 17.7% of the land and 9.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #132 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #210 by population. It belongs to the Rochester-Austin-Winona, MN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Dodge County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

55917559245592755940559445594655955559635597355985

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 Dodge County

Dodge County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Goodhue County (756.7 mi²) and the smallest is Steele County (429.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Dodge County forms a block of 2,990.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.7%.

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

Dodge County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.4 times as much. Minnesota’s county land could hold about 181 areas the size of Dodge County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21 miles (33.7 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 Dodge County?

Dodge County has more land than 916 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 Dodge County at #2,389 nationally by total area, 83 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 0.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 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 Dodge 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.