US Counties With the Lowest Population (County Health Rankings)
3,142 US counties ranked by population (county health rankings), from lowest to highest. First are Alpine County, CA (673.16), Arthur County, NE (762.96) and Esmeralda County, NV (765.07). The middle one of the 3,142 has 1002.17.
What this measures
How many people live here, as County Health Rankings counts them. Source: County Health Rankings.
This is a count, so it is ranked per 1,000 residents. Ranked by the raw total, it would just list the biggest counties.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 lowest counties
Every state, lowest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | 984.84 |
| 2 | Illinois | 988.76 |
| 3 | Louisiana | 989.76 |
| 4 | West Virginia | 991.95 |
| 5 | Hawaii | 992.71 |
| 6 | California | 992.92 |
| 7 | Mississippi | 996.02 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | 998.11 |
| 9 | Michigan | 998.55 |
| 10 | Oregon | 998.75 |
| 11 | Alaska | 999.24 |
| 12 | New Mexico | 999.83 |
| 13 | Ohio | 1000.51 |
| 14 | Rhode Island | 1000.58 |
| 15 | Kansas | 1001.00 |
| 16 | Massachusetts | 1001.29 |
| 17 | Maryland | 1001.55 |
| 18 | New Jersey | 1002.57 |
| 19 | Wisconsin | 1003.22 |
| 20 | Vermont | 1003.42 |
| 21 | Kentucky | 1003.43 |
| 22 | Iowa | 1003.46 |
| 23 | Minnesota | 1004.23 |
| 24 | Missouri | 1004.54 |
| 25 | Connecticut | 1005.24 |
| 26 | North Dakota | 1005.86 |
| 27 | Nebraska | 1006.34 |
| 28 | Virginia | 1006.72 |
| 29 | Indiana | 1007.41 |
| 30 | Wyoming | 1007.42 |
| 31 | Washington | 1009.29 |
| 32 | District of Columbia | 1010.25 |
| 33 | New Hampshire | 1010.28 |
| 34 | Alabama | 1010.73 |
| 35 | Colorado | 1011.50 |
| 36 | Arkansas | 1011.56 |
| 37 | Maine | 1013.29 |
| 38 | Oklahoma | 1014.65 |
| 39 | Nevada | 1016.94 |
| 40 | Georgia | 1019.07 |
| 41 | Tennessee | 1020.10 |
| 42 | South Dakota | 1022.38 |
| 43 | Arizona | 1022.44 |
| 44 | North Carolina | 1023.69 |
| 45 | Montana | 1025.09 |
| 46 | Delaware | 1025.88 |
| 47 | Utah | 1025.97 |
| 48 | Texas | 1029.11 |
| 49 | South Carolina | 1030.85 |
| 50 | Florida | 1031.11 |
| 51 | Idaho | 1037.71 |
More on population (county health rankings)
- US Counties With the Highest Population (County Health Rankings)
- Population (County Health Rankings) by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.