Providence County area

Population and density of Providence County

The Census Bureau estimates that 678,179 people lived in Providence County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #102 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #1 of 5 in Rhode Island. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 660,723, the population has grown by 17,456 (+2.6%), compared with +1.6% for Rhode Island as a whole.

With 409.5 square miles of land, that is 1,656 people per square mile (639 per km²), placing Providence County #104 nationally for density and #2 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 0.386 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 Providence County

Providence County is divided into 16 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 Providence city, with 195,310 residents (28.8% of the county). The largest by land is Burrillville town, at 54.9 mi², or 13.4% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Glocester town grew fastest since then (+6.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Providence 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; Providence County accounts for 25.8% of the land and 39.7% 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

43 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Providence County; 42 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

02802028140281502816028230282402825028260282802829028300283102838028390285702858028590286002861028630286402865028760289502896029030290402905029060290702908029090291002911029120291402915029160291702918029190292002921

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 Providence County

Providence County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 4 in Connecticut and Massachusetts. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Worcester County (1,510.7 mi²) and the smallest is Bristol County (24.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Providence County forms a block of 3,616 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.3%.

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

Providence County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.5 times as much. Rhode Island’s county land could hold about 2.5 areas the size of Providence County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.2 miles (32.6 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 Providence County?

Providence County has more land than 756 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 Providence County at #2,412 nationally by total area, 54 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 6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 4.8 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 Providence 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.