County facts · Land area · October 21, 2026
Largest Counties in Texas by Area and Population
The largest Texas 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 Texas? Texas has 254 counties covering about 261,268 square miles of land, based on the Census Bureau's 2020 Gazetteer. The largest by land area is Brewster County, at about 6,184 square miles, roughly 49 times the size of the smallest, Rockwall County (127 sq mi). Measured by people instead, the largest is Harris County, with about 4,835,125 residents in the Census Bureau's July 1, 2023 estimate.
Each table below links the county's Platbookmapper page and its official parcel viewer, so you can go straight from the numbers to the property lines.
Texas counties at a glance
- Counties: 254
- Land area: about 261,268 sq mi, plus about 7,328 sq mi of water inside county lines
- Residents, 2023 estimates: about 30,503,301, or about 117 people per square mile of land
- Median county land area: about 909 sq mi
- With a verified public parcel viewer in our directory: 254 of 254
The 10 largest Texas counties by land area
| # | County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | People per sq mi | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brewster County | Alpine | 6,184 | 9,513 | 1.5 | appraisal district map |
| 2 | Pecos County | Fort Stockton | 4,764 | 14,623 | 3.1 | appraisal district map |
| 3 | Hudspeth County | Sierra Blanca | 4,571 | 3,451 | 0.8 | appraisal district map |
| 4 | Presidio County | Marfa | 3,855 | 5,795 | 1.5 | appraisal district map |
| 5 | Culberson County | Van Horn | 3,812 | 2,196 | 0.6 | Prodigy CAD map |
| 6 | Webb County | Laredo | 3,361 | 269,148 | 80 | appraisal district map |
| 7 | Val Verde County | Del Rio | 3,145 | 47,720 | 15 | Prodigy CAD map |
| 8 | Crockett County | Ozona | 2,807 | 2,858 | 1.0 | appraisal district map |
| 9 | Reeves County | Pecos | 2,635 | 11,770 | 4.5 | appraisal district map |
| 10 | Terrell County | Sanderson | 2,358 | 687 | 0.3 | appraisal district map |
Together these 10 cover about 14% of Texas's land area and hold about 1% of its residents.
The 10 most populous Texas counties
| # | County | Seat | 2023 pop. | Land (sq mi) | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harris County | Houston | 4,835,125 | 1,707 | appraisal district map |
| 2 | Dallas County | Dallas | 2,606,358 | 873 | appraisal district map |
| 3 | Tarrant County | Fort Worth | 2,182,947 | 865 | county web map |
| 4 | Bexar County | San Antonio | 2,087,679 | 1,240 | county web map |
| 5 | Travis County | Austin | 1,334,961 | 994 | Prodigy CAD map |
| 6 | Collin County | McKinney | 1,195,359 | 841 | county web map |
| 7 | Denton County | Denton | 1,007,703 | 879 | appraisal district map |
| 8 | Fort Bend County | Richmond | 916,778 | 862 | appraisal district map |
| 9 | Hidalgo County | Edinburg | 898,471 | 1,571 | Prodigy CAD map |
| 10 | El Paso County | El Paso | 869,880 | 1,013 | appraisal district map |
These 10 hold about 59% of Texas's residents in the 2023 estimates.
The 5 smallest Texas counties by land area
| County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rockwall County | Rockwall | 127 | 131,307 | Prodigy CAD map |
| Somervell County | Glen Rose | 186 | 9,888 | Prodigy CAD map |
| Camp County | Pittsburg | 196 | 13,000 | appraisal district map |
| Rains County | Emory | 229 | 12,986 | appraisal district map |
| Morris County | Daingerfield | 252 | 12,066 | appraisal district map |
Most and least crowded
- Most people per square mile: Dallas County, about 2,985 (then Harris County, 2,833, and Tarrant County, 2,523)
- Fewest people per square mile: Loving County, about 0.1 (then Kenedy County, 0.2, and King County, 0.2)
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.
- Calhoun County: about 526 sq mi of water, 51% of its total area
- Matagorda County: about 520 sq mi of water, 32% of its total area
- Galveston County: about 495 sq mi of water, 57% 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
- Texas county GIS websites by viewer
- Texas plat maps
- Texas landowner maps for hunting
- Louisiana–Texas border counties
- New Mexico–Texas border counties
- Oklahoma–Texas border counties
More: All Texas 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.