Richland County area

Population and density of Richland County

The Census Bureau estimates that 16,731 people lived in Richland County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,055 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #9 of 53 in North Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 16,541, the population has grown by 190 (+1.1%), compared with +2.6% for North Dakota as a whole.

With 1,435.7 square miles of land, that is 12 people per square mile (4.5 per km²), placing Richland County #2,587 nationally for density and #9 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 55 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 Richland County

14 incorporated places lie at least partly in Richland County. Together they are home to 11,755 people (70.3%); the other 4,976 (29.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Wahpeton city, with 8,141 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Richland County is a central county of the Wahpeton, ND-MN Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 23,019 residents on 2,186.7 square miles of land; Richland County accounts for 65.7% of the land and 72.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #71 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #492 by population. It belongs to the Fargo-Wahpeton, ND-MN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

20 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Richland County; 15 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

5725558001580085801558018580305804158047580515805258053580575805858060580615807458075580765807758081

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 Richland County

Richland County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 4 in Minnesota and South Dakota. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Cass County (1,764.9 mi²) and the smallest is Traverse County (573.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Richland County forms a block of 8,392.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.1%.

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

Richland 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 Richland 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 Richland County?

Richland County has more land than 2,803 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 Richland County at #472 nationally by total area, 53 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 0.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 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 Richland 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.