Stark County area

Population and density of Stark County

The Census Bureau estimates that 34,013 people lived in Stark County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,375 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #7 of 53 in North Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 33,649, the population has grown by 364 (+1.1%), compared with +2.6% for North Dakota as a whole.

With 1,334.9 square miles of land, that is 25 people per square mile (9.8 per km²), placing Stark County #2,133 nationally for density and #5 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 25 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 Stark County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Stark County. Together they are home to 28,496 people (83.8%); the other 5,517 (16.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Dickinson city, with 25,870 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Stark County is a central county of the Dickinson, ND Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 39,142 residents on 4,492 square miles of land; Stark County accounts for 29.7% of the land and 86.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #29 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #329 by population.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Stark County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

58601586225863058638586415864658647586525865558656

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 Stark County

Stark County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Dunn County (2,008.6 mi²) and the smallest is Mercer County (1,042.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Stark County forms a block of 11,467.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.6%.

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

Stark County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.3 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.5 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). North Dakota’s county land could hold about 52 areas the size of Stark County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 36.5 miles (58.8 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 Stark County?

Stark County has more land than 2,776 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 Stark County at #509 nationally by total area, 63 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Stark 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.