Howard County area

Population and density of Howard County

The Census Bureau estimates that 6,538 people lived in Howard County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,774 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #45 of 93 in Nebraska. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 6,474, the population has grown by 64 (+1%), compared with +2.9% for Nebraska as a whole.

With 569.3 square miles of land, that is 11 people per square mile (4.4 per km²), placing Howard County #2,589 nationally for density and #41 in Nebraska. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Nebraska median is 8. Put another way, there are about 56 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 Howard County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Howard County. Together they are home to 3,260 people (49.9%); the other 3,278 (50.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is St. Paul city, with 2,416 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Howard County is an outlying county of the Grand Island, NE Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 78,076 residents on 1,603.6 square miles of land; Howard County accounts for 35.5% of the land and 8.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #205 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #386 by population.

ZIP codes

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

6881768820688246883168835688386886468872688736887568882

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 Howard County

Howard County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Buffalo County (968.2 mi²) and the smallest is Nance County (441.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Howard County forms a block of 4,149.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.7%.

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

Howard County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.8 times as much. Nebraska’s county land could hold about 135 areas the size of Howard County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.9 miles (38.4 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 Howard County?

Howard County has more land than 1,434 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 Howard County at #1,868 nationally by total area, 80 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 1.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2%. The two percentages are within 0.1 percentage points of each other. 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 Howard 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.