Ward County area

Population and density of Ward County

The Census Bureau estimates that 68,233 people lived in Ward County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #814 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #4 of 53 in North Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 69,930, the population has declined by 1,697 (−2.4%), compared with +2.6% for North Dakota as a whole.

With 2,013 square miles of land, that is 34 people per square mile (13 per km²), placing Ward County #1,897 nationally for density and #4 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 19 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 Ward County

12 incorporated places lie at least partly in Ward County. Together they are home to 52,528 people (77%); the other 15,705 (23%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Minot city, with 47,308 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Surrey city grew fastest since then (+7.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Ward County is a central county of the Minot, ND Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 75,694 residents on 4,764.2 square miles of land; Ward County accounts for 42.3% of the land and 90.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #56 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #387 by population.

ZIP codes

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

587015870358704587055870758716587185872158722587255873158733587345873558740587465875658759587685877158779587815878558790

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 Ward County

Ward County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is McLean County (2,110.3 mi²) and the smallest is Renville County (877.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Ward County forms a block of 9,803.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 20.5%.

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

Ward County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 2.4 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). North Dakota’s county land could hold about 34 areas the size of Ward County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 44.9 miles (72.2 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 Ward County?

Ward County has more land than 2,939 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 Ward County at #309 nationally by total area, 26 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% — 0.9 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 Ward 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.