Otter Tail County area

Population and density of Otter Tail County

The Census Bureau estimates that 61,041 people lived in Otter Tail County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #896 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #17 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 60,094, the population has grown by 947 (+1.6%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 1,971.6 square miles of land, that is 31 people per square mile (12 per km²), placing Otter Tail County #1,975 nationally for density and #41 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 21 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 Otter Tail County

Otter Tail County is divided into 84 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 Fergus Falls city, with 14,246 residents (23.3% of the county). The largest by land is Inman township, at 36.5 mi², or 1.8% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, New York Mills city grew fastest since then (+9.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Otter Tail County is a central county of the Fergus Falls, MN Micropolitan Statistical Area. Otter Tail County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 1,971.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #81 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #158 by population.

ZIP codes

34 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Otter Tail County; 20 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

56309563155632456326563615643756446564535646456477564825650156514565155651856522565245652756528565335653456537565445655156567565715657256573565765657956586565875658856590

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 Otter Tail County

Otter Tail County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Becker County (1,315 mi²) and the smallest is Wadena County (536.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Otter Tail County forms a block of 7,749 mi² of land, of which it holds 25.4%.

How big is Otter Tail County compared with U.S. states?

Otter Tail County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 2.5 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Minnesota’s county land could hold about 40 areas the size of Otter Tail County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 44.4 miles (71.5 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 Otter Tail County?

Otter Tail County has more land than 2,933 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 Otter Tail County at #280 nationally by total area, 9 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 11.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 10.2 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 Otter Tail 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.