Grand Forks County area

Population and density of Grand Forks County

The Census Bureau estimates that 74,501 people lived in Grand Forks County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #764 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 53 in North Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 73,172, the population has grown by 1,329 (+1.8%), compared with +2.6% for North Dakota as a whole.

With 1,436.2 square miles of land, that is 52 people per square mile (20 per km²), placing Grand Forks County #1,512 nationally for density and #3 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 12 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 Grand Forks County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Grand Forks County. Together they are home to 65,027 people (87.3%); the other 9,474 (12.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Grand Forks city, with 60,365 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Larimore city grew fastest since then (+7.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Grand Forks County is a central county of the Grand Forks, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 105,046 residents on 3,407.2 square miles of land; Grand Forks County accounts for 42.2% of the land and 70.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #86 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #358 by population.

ZIP codes

22 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Grand Forks County; 16 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

56744582015820258203582045820558212582145822858231582335823558240582445825158256582585826158266582675827558278

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 Grand Forks County

Grand Forks County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Minnesota. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Polk County (1,971 mi²) and the smallest is Steele County (712.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Grand Forks County forms a block of 9,019.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.9%.

How big is Grand Forks County compared with U.S. states?

Grand Forks 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). North Dakota’s county land could hold about 48 areas the size of Grand Forks County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 37.9 miles (61 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 Grand Forks County?

Grand Forks County has more land than 2,804 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 Grand Forks County at #476 nationally by total area, 58 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 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 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 Grand Forks 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.