Lyon County area

Population and density of Lyon County

The Census Bureau estimates that 65,088 people lived in Lyon County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #855 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 17 in Nevada. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 59,238, the population has grown by 5,850 (+9.9%), compared with +5.7% for Nevada as a whole.

With 2,003.1 square miles of land, that is 32 people per square mile (13 per km²), placing Lyon County #1,932 nationally for density and #5 in Nevada. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Nevada median is 3.2. Put another way, there are about 20 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 Lyon County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lyon County. Together they are home to 29,441 people (45.2%); the other 35,647 (54.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Fernley city, with 26,214 residents in the county. The county seat, Yerington city, has 3,227 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Fernley city grew fastest since then (+14.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Lyon County is an outlying county of the Reno, NV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 578,734 residents on 8,582.7 square miles of land; Lyon County accounts for 23.3% of the land and 11.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #12 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #102 by population. It belongs to the Reno-Carson City-Gardnerville Ranchos, NV-CA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

894038940689408894288942989430894448944789706

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 Lyon County

Lyon County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 1 in California. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Washoe County (6,315.9 mi²) and the smallest is Carson City (144.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lyon County forms a block of 21,188.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 9.5%.

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

Lyon County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 2.4 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Nevada’s county land could hold about 55 areas the size of Lyon County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 44.8 miles (72 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 Lyon County?

Lyon County has more land than 2,935 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 Lyon County at #316 nationally by total area, 29 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 Lyon 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.