Herkimer County area

Population and density of Herkimer County

The Census Bureau estimates that 59,219 people lived in Herkimer County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #914 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #43 of 62 in New York. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 60,155, the population has declined by 936 (−1.6%), compared with −1% for New York as a whole.

With 1,410.6 square miles of land, that is 42 people per square mile (16 per km²), placing Herkimer County #1,710 nationally for density and #56 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 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 Herkimer County

Herkimer County is divided into 20 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 German Flatts town, with 11,969 residents (20.2% of the county). The largest by land is Webb town, at 451.4 mi², or 32% of the county’s land. The county seat, Herkimer town, has 9,432 residents. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Columbia town grew fastest since then (+1%).

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

Metropolitan area

Herkimer County is an outlying county of the Utica-Rome, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 285,611 residents on 2,623 square miles of land; Herkimer County accounts for 53.8% of the land and 20.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #122 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #177 by population.

ZIP codes

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

1330413322133241332913331133381333913340133501335713361133651336713406134071341313416134201343113438134391345413456134701347213475134911350113502

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 Herkimer County

Herkimer County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is St. Lawrence County (2,679.5 mi²) and the smallest is Montgomery County (403.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Herkimer County forms a block of 10,196.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.8%.

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

Herkimer County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.4 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.4 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). New York’s county land could hold about 33 areas the size of Herkimer County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 37.6 miles (60.4 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 Herkimer County?

Herkimer County has more land than 2,796 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 Herkimer County at #468 nationally by total area, 42 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 3.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2 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 Herkimer 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.