Nicollet County area

Population and density of Nicollet County

The Census Bureau estimates that 34,273 people lived in Nicollet County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,365 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #33 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 34,458, the population has declined by 185 (−0.5%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 448.3 square miles of land, that is 76 people per square mile (30 per km²), placing Nicollet County #1,194 nationally for density and #19 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 8.4 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 Nicollet County

Nicollet 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 North Mankato city, with 14,165 residents (41.3% of the county). The largest by land is Lake Prairie township, at 54.7 mi², or 12.2% of the county’s land. The county seat, St. Peter city, has 12,275 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, St. Peter city grew fastest since then (+1.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Nicollet County is a central county of the Mankato, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 104,907 residents on 1,196.2 square miles of land; Nicollet County accounts for 37.5% of the land and 32.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #259 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #359 by population. It belongs to the Mankato-New Ulm, MN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Nicollet County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

55332553345533556003560215605456058560735607456082

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 Nicollet County

Nicollet County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Nicollet County. The largest neighbor is Renville County (982.9 mi²) and the smallest is Le Sueur County (448.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Nicollet County forms a block of 3,828.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.7%.

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

Nicollet County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.3 times as much. Minnesota’s county land could hold about 178 areas the size of Nicollet County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.2 miles (34.1 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 Nicollet County?

Nicollet County has more land than 944 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 Nicollet County at #2,299 nationally by total area, 21 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 3.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.8 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 Nicollet 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.