Rockland County area

Population and density of Rockland County

The Census Bureau estimates that 357,397 people lived in Rockland County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #212 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #13 of 62 in New York. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 338,332, the population has grown by 19,065 (+5.6%), compared with −1% for New York as a whole.

With 173.7 square miles of land, that is 2,058 people per square mile (794 per km²), placing Rockland County #81 nationally for density and #8 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 0.311 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 Rockland County

Rockland County is divided into 5 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 Ramapo town, with 161,564 residents (45.2% of the county), and it is also the largest by land at 61.2 mi². Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Ramapo town grew fastest since then (+8.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Rockland County is a central county of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ metropolitan division. Its 22 county equivalents have 20,112,448 residents on 6,139.7 square miles of land; Rockland County accounts for 2.8% of the land and 1.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #34 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #1 by population. It belongs to the New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

26 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Rockland County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

1090110911109131092010923109271093110952109541095610960109621096410965109681097010974109761097710980109831098410986109891099310994

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Rockland County

Rockland County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in New Jersey. Each of them has more land than Rockland County. The largest neighbor is Orange County (812.1 mi²) and the smallest is Passaic County (186.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Rockland County forms a block of 2,065.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.4%.

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

Rockland County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6 times as much. New York’s county land could hold about 271 areas the size of Rockland County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 13.2 miles (21.2 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 Rockland County?

Rockland County has more land than 186 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 Rockland County at #3,024 nationally by total area, 12 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 12.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 11.8 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 Rockland 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.