Elko County area

Population and density of Elko County

The Census Bureau estimates that 54,815 people lived in Elko County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #962 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #6 of 17 in Nevada. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 53,706, the population has grown by 1,109 (+2.1%), compared with +5.7% for Nevada as a whole.

With 17,173.3 square miles of land, that is 3.2 people per square mile (1.2 per km²), placing Elko County #2,964 nationally for density and #8 in Nevada. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Nevada median is 3.2. Put another way, there are about 201 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 Elko County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Elko County. Together they are home to 28,851 people (52.6%); the other 25,964 (47.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Elko city, with 21,019 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Elko city grew fastest since then (+2.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Elko County is a central county of the Elko, NV Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 56,682 residents on 21,349 square miles of land; Elko County accounts for 80.4% of the land and 96.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #1 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #186 by population.

ZIP codes

15 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Elko County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

894148980189815898228982389825898268982889830898318983289833898348983589883

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 Elko County

Elko County shares a land border with 9 county equivalents, including 5 in Idaho and Utah. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Humboldt County (9,640.8 mi²) and the smallest is Twin Falls County (1,921.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Elko County forms a block of 70,372.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 24.4%.

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

Elko County has more land than 9 of the 50 states. It is about 1.8 times the land area of Maryland (9,711 mi²), while West Virginia, the next larger state, has 1.4 times as much land (24,041.4 mi²). Nevada’s county land could hold about 6.4 areas the size of Elko County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 131 miles (210.9 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 Elko County?

Elko County has more land than 3,208 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 Elko County at #16 nationally by total area, 2 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 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 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 Elko 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.