Bristol County area

Population and density of Bristol County

The Census Bureau estimates that 50,001 people lived in Bristol County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,027 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 5 in Rhode Island. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 50,789, the population has declined by 788 (−1.6%), compared with +1.6% for Rhode Island as a whole.

With 24.1 square miles of land, that is 2,072 people per square mile (800 per km²), placing Bristol County #79 nationally for density and #1 in Rhode Island. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Rhode Island median is 1,029. Put another way, there are about 0.309 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 Bristol County

Bristol County is divided into 3 cities and towns. In Rhode Island, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Bristol town, with 21,970 residents (43.9% of the county), and it is also the largest by land at 9.789 mi².

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each subdivision inside Bristol County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Bristol County is a central county of the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 6 county equivalents have 1,708,161 residents on 1,587 square miles of land; Bristol County accounts for 1.5% of the land and 2.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #211 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #40 by population. It belongs to the Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

028060280902885

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 Bristol County

Bristol County shares a land border with 2 county equivalents, including 1 in Massachusetts. Each of them has more land than Bristol County. The largest neighbor is Bristol County (553.1 mi²) and the smallest is Providence County (409.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Bristol County forms a block of 986.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 2.4%.

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

Bristol County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 43 times as much. Rhode Island’s county land could hold about 43 areas the size of Bristol County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 4.91 miles (7.9 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 Bristol County?

Bristol County has more land than 42 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 Bristol County at #3,162 nationally by total area, 18 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 46.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 44.9 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 Bristol 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.