San Patricio County area

Population and density of San Patricio County

The Census Bureau estimates that 72,053 people lived in San Patricio County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #779 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #52 of 254 in Texas. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 68,757, the population has grown by 3,296 (+4.8%), compared with +8.8% for Texas as a whole.

With 693.3 square miles of land, that is 104 people per square mile (40 per km²), placing San Patricio County #959 nationally for density and #49 in Texas. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Texas median is 22. Put another way, there are about 6.2 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 San Patricio County

13 incorporated places lie at least partly in San Patricio County. Together they are home to 58,016 people (80.5%); the other 14,037 (19.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Portland city, with 20,833 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Sinton city, has 5,966 residents. By land, Corpus Christi city is the largest at 167.7 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Sinton city grew fastest since then (+7.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

San Patricio County is a central county of the Corpus Christi, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 451,191 residents on 1,785 square miles of land; San Patricio County accounts for 38.8% of the land and 16% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #177 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #122 by population. It belongs to the Corpus Christi-Kingsville-Alice, TX Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in San Patricio County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

783367835278359783627836878370783747838778390

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 San Patricio County

San Patricio County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Live Oak County (1,039.7 mi²) and the smallest is Aransas County (252.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, San Patricio County forms a block of 5,340.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 13%.

How big is San Patricio County compared with U.S. states?

San Patricio County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. Texas’s county land could hold about 377 areas the size of San Patricio County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.3 miles (42.4 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 San Patricio County?

San Patricio County has more land than 1,872 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 San Patricio County at #1,423 nationally by total area, 73 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 2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 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 San Patricio 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.