Hudson County area

Population and density of Hudson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 735,033 people lived in Hudson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #96 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #4 of 21 in New Jersey. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 724,863, the population has grown by 10,170 (+1.4%), compared with +2.8% for New Jersey as a whole.

With 46.2 square miles of land, that is 15,912 people per square mile (6,144 per km²), placing Hudson County #6 nationally for density and #1 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 0.04 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 Hudson County

Hudson County is divided into 12 cities and towns. In New Jersey, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Jersey City city, with 302,013 residents (41.1% of the county), and it is also the largest by land at 14.7 mi². Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Harrison town grew fastest since then (+13.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Hudson County is a central county of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ metropolitan division. Its 22 county equivalents have 20,112,448 residents on 6,139.7 square miles of land; Hudson County accounts for 0.8% of the land and 3.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #34 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #1 by population. It belongs to the New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Hudson County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

07002070290703007032070470708607087070930709407302073040730507306073070731007311

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Hudson County

Hudson County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents, including 1 in New York. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Bergen County (232.8 mi²) and the smallest is New York County (22.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Hudson County forms a block of 427.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.8%.

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

Hudson County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 22 times as much. New Jersey’s county land could hold about 159 areas the size of Hudson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 6.80 miles (10.9 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 Hudson County?

Hudson County has more land than 85 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 Hudson County at #3,142 nationally by total area, 5 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 25.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 24.7 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 Hudson 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.