North Dakota Counties
Complete list of all 53 counties in North Dakota with population, area, median income, and county seats — plus a free printable blank map.
Labeled outline map of North Dakota counties. Download a printable version in SVG, PNG, or PDF.
All 53 North Dakota counties
| County | County Seat | Population ▼ | Area | Median Income | Cities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cass | — | 193,959 | 1,765 mi² | $79,070 | 22 |
| Burleigh | — | 101,332 | 1,633 mi² | $87,420 | 9 |
| Grand Forks | — | 72,799 | 1,436 mi² | $68,613 | 13 |
| Ward | — | 68,263 | 2,013 mi² | $77,876 | 11 |
| Williams | — | 39,489 | 2,077 mi² | $85,551 | 9 |
| Morton | — | 34,748 | 1,926 mi² | $79,094 | 8 |
| Stark | — | 32,532 | 1,335 mi² | $86,179 | 6 |
| Stutsman | — | 21,672 | 2,222 mi² | $64,719 | 11 |
| Richland | — | 16,388 | 1,436 mi² | $74,492 | 13 |
| McKenzie | — | 12,159 | 2,760 mi² | $102,481 | 6 |
| Rolette | — | 11,987 | 903 mi² | $64,464 | 7 |
| Ramsey | — | 11,717 | 1,187 mi² | $62,676 | 10 |
| Walsh | — | 10,634 | 1,282 mi² | $72,989 | 11 |
| Barnes | — | 10,461 | 1,492 mi² | $68,817 | 12 |
| Mountrail | — | 9,702 | 1,825 mi² | $78,531 | 7 |
How many counties does North Dakota have?
North Dakota has 53 counties covering 69,000 square miles and roughly 784,123 residents. The state was admitted to the Union in 1889 as the 39th state, and the current county boundaries reflect more than a century of administrative subdivision.
The largest county by land area is McKenzie County at 2,760 square miles, home to about 12,159 residents. The most populous is Cass County with approximately 193,959 residents — a density of about 110 people per square mile.
At the other end of the scale, Sheridan County has only about 1,108 residents.
North Dakota’s capital is Bismarck, while the largest city is Fargo — a common pattern in the United States, where many states placed their capitals in smaller, more central towns rather than their largest commercial hubs.
Related resources
Download a printable outline of North Dakota’s county boundaries from our blank map of North Dakota page — available in SVG, PNG, and PDF.
Use the What County Am I In? tool to detect which North Dakota county a GPS location or address falls in, or the Address to County Lookup for batch input.
For demographic radius analysis, the Find ZIP Codes in Radius and Population Within Radius tools let you draw a circle around any North Dakota address and see every ZIP code and the total population inside.
Two SimpleMapLab studies cover North Dakota specifically: the 100-mile radius around Bismarck measures how much of the state lives within 100 miles of its capitol, and the loneliest town in North Dakota ranks the state’s most isolated inhabited place. The county-counts blog post puts North Dakota’s 53 counties in national context.
Frequently asked questions
Population and demographics are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data via the SimpleMaps dataset. Countiesboundaries are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line shapefiles. Land area is from the Census Gazetteer. State counts follow the US Census Bureau’s definition of counties and county-equivalents (50 states + DC = 3,143). All sources are public domain.