Burleigh County area

Population and density of Burleigh County

The Census Bureau estimates that 103,251 people lived in Burleigh County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #614 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #2 of 53 in North Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 98,459, the population has grown by 4,792 (+4.9%), compared with +2.6% for North Dakota as a whole.

With 1,632.7 square miles of land, that is 63 people per square mile (24 per km²), placing Burleigh County #1,348 nationally for density and #2 in North Dakota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the North Dakota median is 3.7. Put another way, there are about 10 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 Burleigh County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Burleigh County. Together they are home to 82,812 people (80.2%); the other 20,439 (19.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bismarck city, with 77,963 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Bismarck city grew fastest since then (+5.9%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Burleigh County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Burleigh County is a central county of the Bismarck, ND Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 139,750 residents on 4,281 square miles of land; Burleigh County accounts for 38.1% of the land and 73.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #65 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #308 by population.

ZIP codes

13 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Burleigh County; 12 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

58477584945850158503585045850558521585245853258558585605857258579

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 Burleigh County

Burleigh County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is McLean County (2,110.3 mi²) and the smallest is Oliver County (722.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Burleigh County forms a block of 10,222.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 16%.

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

Burleigh County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.6 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.2 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). North Dakota’s county land could hold about 42 areas the size of Burleigh County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 40.4 miles (65 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 Burleigh County?

Burleigh County has more land than 2,851 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 Burleigh County at #403 nationally by total area, 32 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 2.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 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 Burleigh 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.