Cuyahoga County area

Population and density of Cuyahoga County

The Census Bureau estimates that 1,232,925 people lived in Cuyahoga County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #38 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #2 of 88 in Ohio. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 1,264,772, the population has declined by 31,847 (−2.5%), compared with +0.9% for Ohio as a whole.

With 457.2 square miles of land, that is 2,696 people per square mile (1,041 per km²), placing Cuyahoga County #53 nationally for density and #1 in Ohio. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Ohio median is 120. Put another way, there are about 0.237 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 Cuyahoga County

57 incorporated places lie at least partly in Cuyahoga County. Together they are home to 1,218,256 people (98.8%); the other 14,669 (1.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Cleveland city, with 363,608 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Orange village grew fastest since then (+5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Cuyahoga County is a central county of the Cleveland, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 6 county equivalents have 2,165,775 residents on 2,701.5 square miles of land; Cuyahoga County accounts for 16.9% of the land and 56.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #115 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #35 by population. It belongs to the Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

52 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Cuyahoga County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

44017440224404044070441014410244103441044410544106441074410844109441104411144112441134411444115441164411744118441194412044121441224412344124441254412644127441284412944130441314413244133441344413544136441374413844139441404414144142441434414444145441464414744149

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Cuyahoga County

Cuyahoga County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Lorain County (490.5 mi²) and the smallest is Lake County (229.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Cuyahoga County forms a block of 2,411.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 19%.

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

Cuyahoga County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.3 times as much. Ohio’s county land could hold about 89 areas the size of Cuyahoga County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.4 miles (34.4 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 Cuyahoga County?

Cuyahoga County has more land than 979 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 Cuyahoga County at #563 nationally by total area, 1,680 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 63.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 62.1 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 Cuyahoga 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.