Josephine County area

Population and density of Josephine County

The Census Bureau estimates that 87,867 people lived in Josephine County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #687 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #13 of 36 in Oregon. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 88,087, the population has declined by 220 (−0.2%), compared with +0.9% for Oregon as a whole.

With 1,638.6 square miles of land, that is 54 people per square mile (21 per km²), placing Josephine County #1,485 nationally for density and #13 in Oregon. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Oregon median is 25. Put another way, there are about 12 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 Josephine County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Josephine County. Together they are home to 41,313 people (47%); the other 46,554 (53%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Grants Pass city, with 39,239 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Grants Pass city grew fastest since then (+0.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Josephine County is a central county of the Grants Pass, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area. Josephine County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 1,638.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #198 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #378 by population. It belongs to the Medford-Grants Pass, OR Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

9749797523975269752797530975319753297534975389754397544

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 Josephine County

Josephine County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in California. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Siskiyou County (6,278.8 mi²) and the smallest is Del Norte County (1,006.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Josephine County forms a block of 18,371 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.9%.

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

Josephine County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.6 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.2 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Oregon’s county land could hold about 59 areas the size of Josephine County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 40.5 miles (65.1 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 Josephine County?

Josephine County has more land than 2,854 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 Josephine County at #411 nationally by total area, 43 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 0.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 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 Josephine 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.