Sanborn County area

Population and density of Sanborn County

The Census Bureau estimates that 2,388 people lived in Sanborn County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #3,085 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #53 of 66 in South Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 2,335, the population has grown by 53 (+2.3%), compared with +5.5% for South Dakota as a whole.

With 569.2 square miles of land, that is 4.2 people per square mile (1.6 per km²), placing Sanborn County #2,888 nationally for density and #39 in South Dakota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the South Dakota median is 5.7. Put another way, there are about 153 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 Sanborn County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Sanborn County. Together they are home to 940 people (39.4%); the other 1,448 (60.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Woonsocket city, with 649 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Sanborn County is an outlying county of the Mitchell, SD Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 25,913 residents on 1,439.5 square miles of land; Sanborn County accounts for 39.5% of the land and 9.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #118 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #472 by population.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Sanborn County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

5731257314573235733757350573595736357385

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 Sanborn County

Sanborn County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Beadle County (1,258.7 mi²) and the smallest is Hanson County (434.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Sanborn County forms a block of 5,335.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.7%.

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

Sanborn County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.8 times as much. South Dakota’s county land could hold about 133 areas the size of Sanborn County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.9 miles (38.4 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 Sanborn County?

Sanborn County has more land than 1,432 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 Sanborn County at #1,929 nationally by total area, 139 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 0.2%, 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 Sanborn 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.