Gloucester County area

Population and density of Gloucester County

The Census Bureau estimates that 312,638 people lived in Gloucester County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #238 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #14 of 21 in New Jersey. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 302,282, the population has grown by 10,356 (+3.4%), compared with +2.8% for New Jersey as a whole.

With 322 square miles of land, that is 971 people per square mile (375 per km²), placing Gloucester County #196 nationally for density and #13 in New Jersey. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the New Jersey median is 1,137. Put another way, there are about 0.659 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 Gloucester County

Gloucester County is divided into 24 municipalities and townships. In New Jersey, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Washington township, with 49,840 residents (15.9% of the county). The largest by land is Franklin township, at 55.8 mi², or 17.3% of the county’s land. The county seat, Woodbury city, has 10,130 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Woolwich township grew fastest since then (+18%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each subdivision inside Gloucester County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Gloucester County is a central county of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the Camden, NJ metropolitan division. Its 11 county equivalents have 6,329,118 residents on 4,603.2 square miles of land; Gloucester County accounts for 7% of the land and 4.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #58 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #9 by population. It belongs to the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

31 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Gloucester County; 26 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

08012080140802008027080280803208039080510805608061080620806308066080710807408080080810808508086080900809308094080960809708098083120832208328083430834408360

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 Gloucester County

Gloucester County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Pennsylvania. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Atlantic County (555.6 mi²) and the smallest is Philadelphia County (134.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Gloucester County forms a block of 2,232.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.4%.

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

Gloucester County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.2 times as much. New Jersey’s county land could hold about 23 areas the size of Gloucester County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17.9 miles (28.9 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 Gloucester County?

Gloucester County has more land than 465 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 Gloucester County at #2,769 nationally by total area, 12 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 4.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 3.2 percentage points higher. 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 Gloucester 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.