Sandoval County area

Population and density of Sandoval County

The Census Bureau estimates that 159,565 people lived in Sandoval County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #443 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 33 in New Mexico. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 148,833, the population has grown by 10,732 (+7.2%), compared with +0.4% for New Mexico as a whole.

With 3,710.2 square miles of land, that is 43 people per square mile (17 per km²), placing Sandoval County #1,684 nationally for density and #6 in New Mexico. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the New Mexico median is 6.9. Put another way, there are about 15 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 Sandoval County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Sandoval County. Together they are home to 133,072 people (83.4%); the other 26,493 (16.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Rio Rancho city, with 114,415 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Bernalillo town, has 9,159 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Rio Rancho city grew fastest since then (+9.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Sandoval County is a central county of the Albuquerque, NM Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 925,279 residents on 9,283.8 square miles of land; Sandoval County accounts for 40% of the land and 17.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #7 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #64 by population. It belongs to the Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Los Alamos, NM Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

21 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Sandoval County; 18 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

870018700487013870188702487025870278704187043870448704687047870488705287053870728708387122871248714487544

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 Sandoval County

Sandoval County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Rio Arriba County (5,860.9 mi²) and the smallest is Los Alamos County (109.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Sandoval County forms a block of 28,260.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.1%.

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

Sandoval County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.9 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1.3 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). New Mexico’s county land could hold about 33 areas the size of Sandoval County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 60.9 miles (98 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 Sandoval County?

Sandoval County has more land than 3,086 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 Sandoval County at #147 nationally by total area, 11 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 Sandoval 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.