Deschutes County area

Population and density of Deschutes County

The Census Bureau estimates that 213,072 people lived in Deschutes County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #338 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #7 of 36 in Oregon. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 198,261, the population has grown by 14,811 (+7.5%), compared with +0.9% for Oregon as a whole.

With 3,017.6 square miles of land, that is 71 people per square mile (27 per km²), placing Deschutes County #1,253 nationally for density and #11 in Oregon. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Oregon median is 25. Put another way, there are about 9.1 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 Deschutes County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Deschutes County. Together they are home to 151,386 people (71%); the other 61,686 (29%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bend city, with 107,342 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Redmond city grew fastest since then (+15.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Deschutes County is a central county of the Bend, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 266,376 residents on 7,778.2 square miles of land; Deschutes County accounts for 38.8% of the land and 80% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #22 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #191 by population.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Deschutes County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

97701977029770397707977099771297739977569775997760

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 Deschutes County

Deschutes County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Harney County (10,134.5 mi²) and the smallest is Jefferson County (1,781.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Deschutes County forms a block of 38,844.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 7.8%.

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

Deschutes County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.5 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1.6 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Oregon’s county land could hold about 32 areas the size of Deschutes County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 54.9 miles (88.4 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 Deschutes County?

Deschutes County has more land than 3,051 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 Deschutes County at #183 nationally by total area, 12 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 1.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2%. The two percentages are within 0.1 percentage points of each other. 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 Deschutes 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.