Buffalo County area

Population and density of Buffalo County

The Census Bureau estimates that 51,172 people lived in Buffalo County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,012 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 93 in Nebraska. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 50,082, the population has grown by 1,090 (+2.2%), compared with +2.9% for Nebraska as a whole.

With 968.2 square miles of land, that is 53 people per square mile (20 per km²), placing Buffalo County #1,497 nationally for density and #10 in Nebraska. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Nebraska median is 8. Put another way, there are about 12 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 Buffalo County

9 incorporated places lie at least partly in Buffalo County. Together they are home to 41,070 people (80.3%); the other 10,102 (19.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Kearney city, with 34,782 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Kearney city grew fastest since then (+2.8%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Buffalo County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Buffalo County is a central county of the Kearney, NE Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 57,962 residents on 1,484.4 square miles of land; Buffalo County accounts for 65.2% of the land and 88.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #112 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #176 by population.

ZIP codes

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

6881268836688406884468845688476884968858688616886668869688706887668956

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 Buffalo County

Buffalo County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Custer County (2,575.5 mi²) and the smallest is Kearney County (516.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Buffalo County forms a block of 7,858.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.3%.

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

Buffalo County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.1 times as much. Nebraska’s county land could hold about 79 areas the size of Buffalo County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 31.1 miles (50.1 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 Buffalo County?

Buffalo County has more land than 2,497 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 Buffalo County at #811 nationally by total area, 86 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 0.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 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 Buffalo 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.