Nobles County area

Population and density of Nobles County

The Census Bureau estimates that 22,338 people lived in Nobles County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,761 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #45 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 22,284, the population has grown by 54 (+0.2%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 715.1 square miles of land, that is 31 people per square mile (12 per km²), placing Nobles County #1,970 nationally for density and #40 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 20 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 Nobles County

Nobles County is divided into 31 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 Worthington city, with 13,979 residents (62.6% of the county). The largest by land is Ransom township, at 36.4 mi², or 5.1% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Adrian city grew fastest since then (+1.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Nobles County is a central county of the Worthington, MN Micropolitan Statistical Area. Nobles County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 715.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #299 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #495 by population.

ZIP codes

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

5611056117561195612256128561295613156141561475615356155561585616556167561685618556187

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 Nobles County

Nobles County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Iowa. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Murray County (704.7 mi²) and the smallest is Osceola County (398.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Nobles County forms a block of 4,231.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.9%.

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

Nobles County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. Minnesota’s county land could hold about 111 areas the size of Nobles County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.7 miles (43 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 Nobles County?

Nobles County has more land than 1,948 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 Nobles County at #1,349 nationally by total area, 75 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 1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.1 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 Nobles 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.