Cortland County area

Population and density of Cortland County

The Census Bureau estimates that 45,850 people lived in Cortland County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,094 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #51 of 62 in New York. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 46,808, the population has declined by 958 (−2%), compared with −1% for New York as a whole.

With 498.8 square miles of land, that is 92 people per square mile (35 per km²), placing Cortland County #1,052 nationally for density and #39 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 7 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 Cortland County

Cortland County is divided into 16 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 Cortland city, with 17,394 residents (37.9% of the county). The largest by land is Homer town, at 50.2 mi², or 10.1% of the county’s land.

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

Metropolitan area

Cortland County is a central county of the Cortland, NY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Cortland County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 498.8 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #435 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #262 by population. It belongs to the Ithaca-Cortland, NY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

18 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Cortland County; 11 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

130401304513052130531307713087131011313613141131581315913738137841380313835138411386213863

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 Cortland County

Cortland County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Chenango County (893.4 mi²) and the smallest is Tompkins County (474.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Cortland County forms a block of 5,216.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 9.6%.

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

Cortland County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.1 times as much. New York’s county land could hold about 94 areas the size of Cortland County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.3 miles (35.9 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 Cortland County?

Cortland County has more land than 1,133 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 Cortland County at #2,177 nationally by total area, 88 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 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Cortland 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.