Ramsey County area

Population and density of Ramsey County

The Census Bureau estimates that 541,623 people lived in Ramsey County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #135 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #2 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 552,362, the population has declined by 10,739 (−1.9%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 152.3 square miles of land, that is 3,557 people per square mile (1,373 per km²), placing Ramsey County #33 nationally for density and #1 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 0.18 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 Ramsey County

Ramsey 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 St. Paul city, with 306,684 residents (56.6% of the county), and it is also the largest by land at 52 mi². Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, St. Anthony city grew fastest since then (+7.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Ramsey County is a central county of the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 15 county equivalents have 3,790,295 residents on 7,047.6 square miles of land; Ramsey County accounts for 2.2% of the land and 14.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #26 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #16 by population. It belongs to the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

550385510155102551035510455105551065510755108551095511055112551135511455116551175511855119551255512655127551305515555418554215543255449

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 Ramsey County

Ramsey County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Ramsey County. The largest neighbor is Dakota County (562.6 mi²) and the smallest is Washington County (384.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Ramsey County forms a block of 2,075.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 7.3%.

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

Ramsey County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6.8 times as much. Minnesota’s county land could hold about 523 areas the size of Ramsey County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 12.3 miles (19.9 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 Ramsey County?

Ramsey County has more land than 166 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 Ramsey County at #3,064 nationally by total area, 8 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 10.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 9.3 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 Ramsey 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.