Wabasha County area

Population and density of Wabasha County

The Census Bureau estimates that 21,537 people lived in Wabasha County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,805 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #47 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 21,372, the population has grown by 165 (+0.8%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 523 square miles of land, that is 41 people per square mile (16 per km²), placing Wabasha County #1,725 nationally for density and #34 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 16 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 Wabasha County

Wabasha County is divided into 28 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 Lake City city, with 4,398 residents (20.4% of the county). The largest by land is Mount Pleasant township, at 36 mi², or 6.9% of the county’s land. The county seat, Wabasha city, has 2,599 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Elgin city grew fastest since then (+2.1%).

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

Metropolitan area

Wabasha County is an outlying county of the Rochester, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 231,184 residents on 2,477.2 square miles of land; Wabasha County accounts for 21.1% of the land and 9.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #132 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #210 by population. It belongs to the Rochester-Austin-Winona, MN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

13 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Wabasha County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

55027550415590655910559325594555956559575596055964559685598155991

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 Wabasha County

Wabasha County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in Wisconsin. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Goodhue County (756.7 mi²) and the smallest is Pepin County (232 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Wabasha County forms a block of 3,467.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.1%.

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

Wabasha 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 times as much. Minnesota’s county land could hold about 152 areas the size of Wabasha County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.9 miles (36.8 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 Wabasha County?

Wabasha County has more land than 1,226 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 Wabasha County at #2,007 nationally by total area, 11 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 4.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 3.7 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 Wabasha 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.