Missoula County area

Population and density of Missoula County

The Census Bureau estimates that 123,513 people lived in Missoula County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #530 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 56 in Montana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 117,927, the population has grown by 5,586 (+4.7%), compared with +5.6% for Montana as a whole.

With 2,593 square miles of land, that is 48 people per square mile (18 per km²), placing Missoula County #1,603 nationally for density and #4 in Montana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Montana median is 2.8. Put another way, there are about 13 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 Missoula County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Missoula County. Together they are home to 78,903 people (63.9%); the other 44,610 (36.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Missoula city, with 78,903 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Missoula County is a central county of the Missoula, MT Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 128,698 residents on 3,812.6 square miles of land; Missoula County accounts for 68% of the land and 96% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #76 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #324 by population.

ZIP codes

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

5980159802598035980459808598125982059821598235982559826598335983459846598475985159868

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 Missoula County

Missoula County shares a land border with 9 county equivalents, including 2 in Idaho. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Idaho County (8,477.5 mi²) and the smallest is Mineral County (1,219.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Missoula County forms a block of 30,525.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.5%.

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

Missoula County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.3 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1.9 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Montana’s county land could hold about 56 areas the size of Missoula County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 50.9 miles (82 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 Missoula County?

Missoula County has more land than 3,016 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 Missoula County at #219 nationally by total area, 13 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 1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Missoula 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.