St. Louis County area

Population and density of St. Louis County

The Census Bureau estimates that 200,518 people lived in St. Louis County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #359 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #6 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 200,227, the population has grown by 291 (+0.1%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 6,248.1 square miles of land, that is 32 people per square mile (12 per km²), placing St. Louis County #1,943 nationally for density and #38 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 St. Louis County

St. Louis County is divided into 110 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 Duluth city, with 88,330 residents (44.1% of the county). The largest by land is Northeast St. Louis UT, at 720.3 mi², or 11.5% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Duluth township grew fastest since then (+4.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

St. Louis County is a central county of the Duluth, MN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 281,219 residents on 8,413.6 square miles of land; St. Louis County accounts for 74.3% of the land and 71.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #13 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #183 by population. It belongs to the Duluth-Grand Rapids, MN-WI Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

52 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in St. Louis County; 42 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

55602556165570255703557055570655708557105571155713557175571955720557235572455725557315573255733557345573655738557415574655750557515575855763557655576855771557725577955781557825579055792557965579855802558035580455805558065580755808558105581155812558145664956669

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 St. Louis County

St. Louis County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 1 in Wisconsin. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Koochiching County (3,104.7 mi²) and the smallest is Carlton County (861.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, St. Louis County forms a block of 18,116.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 34.5%.

How big is St. Louis County compared with U.S. states?

St. Louis County has more land than 3 of the 50 states. It is about 1.3 times the land area of Connecticut (4,842.5 mi²), while Hawaii, the next larger state, has 1 times as much land (6,422.6 mi²). Minnesota’s county land could hold about 13 areas the size of St. Louis County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 79 miles (127.2 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 St. Louis County?

St. Louis County has more land than 3,167 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 St. Louis County at #51 nationally by total area, 4 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 8.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 7.8 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 St. Louis 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.