Albany County area

Population and density of Albany County

The Census Bureau estimates that 321,225 people lived in Albany County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #234 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #14 of 62 in New York. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 314,840, the population has grown by 6,385 (+2%), compared with −1% for New York as a whole.

With 522.9 square miles of land, that is 614 people per square mile (237 per km²), placing Albany County #284 nationally for density and #13 in New York. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the New York median is 112. Put another way, there are about 1 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 Albany County

Albany County is divided into 13 cities and towns. In New York, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Albany city, with 101,698 residents (31.7% of the county). The largest by land is Berne town, at 64 mi², or 12.2% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Guilderland town grew fastest since then (+3.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Albany County is a central county of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 915,835 residents on 2,811.8 square miles of land; Albany County accounts for 18.6% of the land and 35.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #106 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #66 by population. It belongs to the Albany-Schenectady, NY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

47 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Albany County; 39 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

1200712009120231204112045120461204712053120541205912067120771208312084120851208712110121201212212143121471215712158121591216112183121861218912193122021220312204122051220612207122081220912210122111222212226123031230412306123091246012469

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 Albany County

Albany County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Saratoga County (810 mi²) and the smallest is Schenectady County (204.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Albany County forms a block of 3,459 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.1%.

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

Albany County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2 times as much. New York’s county land could hold about 90 areas the size of Albany County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.9 miles (36.8 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 Albany County?

Albany County has more land than 1,225 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 Albany County at #2,066 nationally by total area, 69 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 2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Albany 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.