Carbon County area

Population and density of Carbon County

The Census Bureau estimates that 20,680 people lived in Carbon County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,851 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #16 of 29 in Utah. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 20,413, the population has grown by 267 (+1.3%), compared with +8.2% for Utah as a whole.

With 1,479.3 square miles of land, that is 14 people per square mile (5.4 per km²), placing Carbon County #2,505 nationally for density and #12 in Utah. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Utah median is 11. Put another way, there are about 46 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 Carbon County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Carbon County. Together they are home to 13,691 people (66.2%); the other 6,989 (33.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Price city, with 8,368 residents in the county. By land, East Carbon city is the largest at 11.3 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Price city grew fastest since then (+1.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Carbon County is a central county of the Price, UT Micropolitan Statistical Area. Carbon County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 1,479.3 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #113 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #509 by population.

ZIP codes

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

845018452084526845298453984542

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 Carbon County

Carbon County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Carbon County. The largest neighbor is Uintah County (4,482.9 mi²) and the smallest is Sanpete County (1,589.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Carbon County forms a block of 17,254.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.6%.

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

Carbon County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.4 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.3 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Utah’s county land could hold about 56 areas the size of Carbon County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 38.5 miles (61.9 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 Carbon County?

Carbon County has more land than 2,815 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 Carbon County at #457 nationally by total area, 50 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Carbon 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.