Gosper County area

Population and density of Gosper County

The Census Bureau estimates that 1,803 people lived in Gosper County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #3,133 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #76 of 93 in Nebraska. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 1,894, the population has declined by 91 (−4.8%), compared with +2.9% for Nebraska as a whole.

With 458.2 square miles of land, that is 3.9 people per square mile (1.5 per km²), placing Gosper County #2,914 nationally for density and #66 in Nebraska. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Nebraska median is 8. Put another way, there are about 163 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 Gosper County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Gosper County. Together they are home to 674 people (37.4%); the other 1,129 (62.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Elwood village, with 615 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Gosper County is an outlying county of the Lexington, NE Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 26,255 residents on 1,472 square miles of land; Gosper County accounts for 31.1% of the land and 6.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #114 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #470 by population.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Gosper County; 2 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

688506892268927689366893768948689676897669028

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 Gosper County

Gosper County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Gosper County. The largest neighbor is Dawson County (1,013.8 mi²) and the smallest is Phelps County (539.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Gosper County forms a block of 3,705.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.4%.

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

Gosper County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.3 times as much. Nebraska’s county land could hold about 168 areas the size of Gosper County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.4 miles (34.4 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 Gosper County?

Gosper County has more land than 988 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 Gosper County at #2,310 nationally by total area, 76 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 Gosper 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.