Wilkin County area

Population and density of Wilkin County

The Census Bureau estimates that 6,288 people lived in Wilkin County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,788 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #78 of 87 in Minnesota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 6,507, the population has declined by 219 (−3.4%), compared with +2.2% for Minnesota as a whole.

With 751 square miles of land, that is 8.4 people per square mile (3.2 per km²), placing Wilkin County #2,708 nationally for density and #79 in Minnesota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Minnesota median is 27. Put another way, there are about 76 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 Wilkin County

Wilkin County is divided into 30 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 Breckenridge city, with 3,323 residents (52.8% of the county). The largest by land is Brandrup township, at 54.1 mi², or 7.2% of the county’s land.

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

Metropolitan area

Wilkin County is a central county of the Wahpeton, ND-MN Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 23,019 residents on 2,186.7 square miles of land; Wilkin County accounts for 34.3% of the land and 27.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #71 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #492 by population. It belongs to the Fargo-Wahpeton, ND-MN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Wilkin County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

565145652056522565435655356560565655657256579565835659458030

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 Wilkin County

Wilkin County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 1 in North Dakota. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Otter Tail County (1,971.6 mi²) and the smallest is Grant County (547.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Wilkin County forms a block of 6,325.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.9%.

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

Wilkin 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 106 areas the size of Wilkin County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.4 miles (44.1 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 Wilkin County?

Wilkin County has more land than 2,048 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 Wilkin County at #1,280 nationally by total area, 106 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 0%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 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 Wilkin 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.