Dawson County area

Population and density of Dawson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 24,452 people lived in Dawson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,685 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #13 of 93 in Nebraska. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 24,106, the population has grown by 346 (+1.4%), compared with +2.9% for Nebraska as a whole.

With 1,013.8 square miles of land, that is 24 people per square mile (9.3 per km²), placing Dawson County #2,170 nationally for density and #21 in Nebraska. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Nebraska median is 8. Put another way, there are about 27 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 Dawson County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Dawson County. Together they are home to 19,630 people (80.3%); the other 4,822 (19.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Lexington city, with 11,176 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Lexington city grew fastest since then (+4.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Dawson County is a central county of the Lexington, NE Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 26,255 residents on 1,472 square miles of land; Dawson County accounts for 68.9% of the land and 93.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #114 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #470 by population.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Dawson County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

688346883668850688606886368878689376902869029691306913869171

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 Dawson County

Dawson County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Custer County (2,575.5 mi²) and the smallest is Gosper County (458.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Dawson County forms a block of 9,094.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.1%.

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

Dawson 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 times as much. Nebraska’s county land could hold about 76 areas the size of Dawson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 31.8 miles (51.2 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 Dawson County?

Dawson County has more land than 2,560 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 Dawson County at #751 nationally by total area, 89 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 0.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Dawson 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.