Cayuga County area

Population and density of Cayuga County

The Census Bureau estimates that 74,365 people lived in Cayuga County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #766 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #36 of 62 in New York. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 76,249, the population has declined by 1,884 (−2.5%), compared with −1% for New York as a whole.

With 691.6 square miles of land, that is 108 people per square mile (42 per km²), placing Cayuga County #937 nationally for density and #32 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 6 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 Cayuga County

Cayuga County is divided into 24 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 Auburn city, with 25,947 residents (34.9% of the county). The largest by land is Sterling town, at 45.4 mi², or 6.6% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Mentz town grew fastest since then (+4.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Cayuga County is a central county of the Auburn, NY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Cayuga County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 691.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #310 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #89 by population. It belongs to the Syracuse-Auburn, NY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

26 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Cayuga County; 17 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

1302113024130261302713033130341304513071130731307413077130801308113092131111311313117131181312613140131431314713152131561316013166

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 Cayuga County

Cayuga County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Oswego County (951.6 mi²) and the smallest is Seneca County (323.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Cayuga County forms a block of 4,322.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 16%.

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

Cayuga County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. New York’s county land could hold about 68 areas the size of Cayuga County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.3 miles (42.3 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 Cayuga County?

Cayuga County has more land than 1,869 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 Cayuga County at #1,060 nationally by total area, 293 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 19.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 18.8 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 Cayuga 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.