Nye County area

Population and density of Nye County

The Census Bureau estimates that 57,336 people lived in Nye County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #936 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 17 in Nevada. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 51,591, the population has grown by 5,745 (+11.1%), compared with +5.7% for Nevada as a whole.

With 18,181.9 square miles of land, that is 3.2 people per square mile (1.2 per km²), placing Nye County #2,968 nationally for density and #9 in Nevada. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Nevada median is 3.2. Put another way, there are about 203 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 Nye County

Nye County has no incorporated cities, towns or villages. All 57,336 of its residents live in unincorporated communities, which the Census Bureau describes as census-designated places rather than municipalities.

Metropolitan area

Nye County is a central county of the Pahrump, NV Micropolitan Statistical Area. Nye County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 18,181.9 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #2 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #178 by population. It belongs to the Las Vegas-Henderson, NV Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Nye County; 10 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

8900389020890228904589048890498906089061893108931489409

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 Nye County

Nye County shares a land border with 9 county equivalents, including 1 in California. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Lincoln County (10,633.4 mi²) and the smallest is Esmeralda County (3,581.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Nye County forms a block of 77,769.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 23.4%.

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

Nye County has more land than 9 of the 50 states. It is about 1.9 times the land area of Maryland (9,711 mi²), while West Virginia, the next larger state, has 1.3 times as much land (24,041.4 mi²). Nevada’s county land could hold about 6 areas the size of Nye County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 134.8 miles (217 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 Nye County?

Nye County has more land than 3,209 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 Nye County at #15 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 0.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 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 Nye 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.