McLean County area

Population and density of McLean County

The Census Bureau estimates that 9,740 people lived in McLean County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,505 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #15 of 53 in North Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 9,776, the population has declined by 36 (−0.4%), compared with +2.6% for North Dakota as a whole.

With 2,110.3 square miles of land, that is 4.6 people per square mile (1.8 per km²), placing McLean County #2,865 nationally for density and #21 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 139 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 McLean County

12 incorporated places lie at least partly in McLean County. Together they are home to 5,369 people (55.1%); the other 4,371 (44.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Garrison city, with 1,446 residents in the county. The county seat, Washburn city, has 1,254 residents. By land, Washburn city is the largest at 1.685 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

McLean County is not part of any metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area in the Office of Management and Budget’s July 2023 delineation; 1,306 other county equivalents are also outside one. These areas are built around an urban core of at least 10,000 people plus the counties tied to it by commuting, so counties outside them are generally rural.

ZIP codes

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

585315854058559585655857558576585775857958716587235873558756587595877058771587755877858779

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 McLean County

McLean County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Ward County (2,013 mi²) and the smallest is Oliver County (722.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, McLean County forms a block of 14,201.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.9%.

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

McLean County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.1 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 2.3 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). North Dakota’s county land could hold about 33 areas the size of McLean County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 45.9 miles (73.9 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 McLean County?

McLean County has more land than 2,957 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 McLean County at #265 nationally by total area, the same position as its land rank. Changing the area definition does not change its position in this release.

Its water share is 9.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 8.2 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 McLean 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.