Scotts Bluff County area

Population and density of Scotts Bluff County

The Census Bureau estimates that 35,586 people lived in Scotts Bluff County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,333 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #9 of 93 in Nebraska. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 36,087, the population has declined by 501 (−1.4%), compared with +2.9% for Nebraska as a whole.

With 739.6 square miles of land, that is 48 people per square mile (19 per km²), placing Scotts Bluff County #1,590 nationally for density and #13 in Nebraska. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Nebraska median is 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 Scotts Bluff County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Scotts Bluff County. Together they are home to 27,517 people (77.3%); the other 8,069 (22.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Scottsbluff city, with 14,259 residents in the county. The county seat, Gering city, has 8,535 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Scotts Bluff County is a central county of the Scottsbluff, NE Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 36,272 residents on 1,485.7 square miles of land; Scotts Bluff County accounts for 49.8% of the land and 98.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #111 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #380 by population.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Scotts Bluff County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

693346934169352693536935569356693576935869361

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 Scotts Bluff County

Scotts Bluff County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 1 in Wyoming. Each of them has more land than Scotts Bluff County. The largest neighbor is Goshen County (2,225.6 mi²) and the smallest is Banner County (746 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Scotts Bluff County forms a block of 8,276.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.9%.

How big is Scotts Bluff County compared with U.S. states?

Scotts Bluff County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. Nebraska’s county land could hold about 104 areas the size of Scotts Bluff County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.2 miles (43.8 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 Scotts Bluff County?

Scotts Bluff County has more land than 2,027 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 Scotts Bluff County at #1,287 nationally by total area, 92 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 0.8%, 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 Scotts Bluff 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.