County facts · Land area · October 21, 2026
Largest Counties in New York by Area and Population
The largest New York counties by land area and by 2023 population, plus the smallest, county seats and a link to each official parcel map.
Looking for the largest counties in New York? New York has 62 counties covering about 47,124 square miles of land, based on the Census Bureau's 2020 Gazetteer. The largest by land area is St. Lawrence County, at about 2,680 square miles, roughly 118 times the size of the smallest, New York County (23 sq mi). Measured by people instead, the largest is Kings County, with about 2,561,225 residents in the Census Bureau's July 1, 2023 estimate.
New York City's five boroughs are each a county (Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens and Richmond), so they appear below under their county names. City government runs all five, and Wikidata lists no separate county seat for them, so the Seat column shows a dash.
The tables below rank the counties both ways. Each row links to the county's Platbookmapper page and straight to its official parcel viewer.
New York counties at a glance
- Counties: 62
- Land area: about 47,124 sq mi, plus about 7,435 sq mi of water inside county lines
- Residents, 2023 estimates: about 19,571,216, or about 415 people per square mile of land
- Median county land area: about 654 sq mi
- With a verified public parcel viewer in our directory: 62 of 62 (13 of them through a statewide viewer)
The 10 largest New York counties by land area
| # | County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | People per sq mi | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Lawrence County | Canton | 2,680 | 106,940 | 40 | NYS Tax Parcels Public layer in ArcGIS Map Viewer |
| 2 | Essex County | Elizabethtown | 1,794 | 36,775 | 20 | county web map |
| 3 | Hamilton County | Lake Pleasant | 1,717 | 5,082 | 3.0 | NYS Tax Parcels Public layer in ArcGIS Map Viewer |
| 4 | Franklin County | Malone | 1,629 | 46,502 | 29 | ArcGIS Map Viewer |
| 5 | Delaware County | Delhi | 1,443 | 44,410 | 31 | ArcGIS Map Viewer |
| 6 | Herkimer County | Herkimer | 1,412 | 59,484 | 42 | Beacon (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 7 | Steuben County | Bath | 1,391 | 92,162 | 66 | NYS Tax Parcels Public layer in ArcGIS Map Viewer |
| 8 | Cattaraugus County | Little Valley | 1,308 | 75,600 | 58 | ArcGIS Map Viewer |
| 9 | Lewis County | Lowville | 1,275 | 26,548 | 21 | NYS Tax Parcels Public layer in ArcGIS Map Viewer |
| 10 | Jefferson County | Watertown | 1,269 | 114,787 | 90 | Beacon (Schneider Geospatial) |
Together these 10 cover about 34% of New York's land area and hold about 3% of its residents.
The 10 most populous New York counties
| # | County | Seat | 2023 pop. | Land (sq mi) | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kings County | — | 2,561,225 | 69 | county web map |
| 2 | Queens County | — | 2,252,196 | 109 | county web map |
| 3 | New York County | — | 1,597,451 | 23 | county web map |
| 4 | Suffolk County | Riverhead | 1,523,170 | 911 | county web map |
| 5 | Nassau County | Mineola | 1,381,715 | 285 | county web map |
| 6 | Bronx County | — | 1,356,476 | 42 | county web map |
| 7 | Westchester County | White Plains | 990,817 | 431 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| 8 | Erie County | Buffalo | 946,147 | 1,043 | county web map |
| 9 | Monroe County | Rochester | 748,482 | 657 | county web map |
| 10 | Richmond County | — | 490,687 | 58 | county web map |
These 10 hold about 71% of New York's residents in the 2023 estimates.
The 5 smallest New York counties by land area
| County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York County | — | 23 | 1,597,451 | county web map |
| Bronx County | — | 42 | 1,356,476 | county web map |
| Richmond County | — | 58 | 490,687 | county web map |
| Kings County | — | 69 | 2,561,225 | county web map |
| Queens County | — | 109 | 2,252,196 | county web map |
Most and least crowded
- Most people per square mile: New York County, about 70,509 (then Kings County, 36,917, and Bronx County, 32,165)
- Fewest people per square mile: Hamilton County, about 3.0 (then Essex County, 20, and Lewis County, 21)
Counties with the most water
The Census Bureau reports water separately from land. It counts lakes, reservoirs, rivers and, for coastal and Great Lakes counties, the water inside the county boundary.
- Suffolk County: about 1,462 sq mi of water, 62% of its total area
- Wayne County: about 779 sq mi of water, 56% of its total area
- Monroe County: about 710 sq mi of water, 52% of its total area
Using these numbers in a land search
- Land area is not parcel count. A large rural county can hold fewer parcels than a small suburban one, so size alone says little about how busy its parcel map is.
- Search, don't scroll. In a big county, type an address, owner name or parcel number into the viewer's search box, where it has one, instead of panning across the map.
- Records follow the county line. Deeds, plats and tax bills are kept by the county where the parcel sits, so a tract that crosses a county line usually has a parcel number in each county.
- Rounded figures. Land and water areas are rounded to whole square miles. People per square mile is the 2023 estimate divided by land area.
Related guides
- New York county GIS websites by viewer
- New York plat maps
- New York statewide parcel map
- New York landowner maps for hunting
- New Jersey–New York border counties
- New York–Pennsylvania border counties
More: All New York counties on Platbookmapper
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer files, 2020 county land and water area.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, county totals, Vintage 2023 (July 1, 2023 estimates)
- Platbookmapper county GIS directory (live data file behind our county pages, pulled October 21, 2026) for each county's official parcel viewer.
- County seats: Wikidata (county seat property), cross-checked against Census place names.