10,798 people (2024 Census estimate, −0.4% since 2020)
1,492 square miles of land · 7 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
9 active community water systems list Barnes County in the area they serve, reporting 12,391 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| VALLEY CITY CITY OF surface water · local government · ND0200958 | 6,585 served |
| BARNES RURAL WATER DISTRICT groundwater · private · ND0201058 | 4,938 served |
| WIMBLEDON CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND0201032 | 216 served |
| SANBORN CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND0200858 | 192 served |
| LITCHVILLE CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND0200581 | 172 served |
| ORISKA CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND0200763 | 118 served |
| DAZEY CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND0200226 | 78 served |
| NOME CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND0200747 | 62 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 4 people were held in Barnes County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2021), or 61 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2016 it was about 19.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
2 school districts have their office in Barnes County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $16.5 million — $14.2 million to run schools, about $13,719 per student, plus $1 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $5.6 million local (mostly property tax), $8.8 million state, $3.8 million federal. Long-term debt: $1.8 million.
Spent $5.2 million — $4.1 million to run schools, about $16,442 per student, plus $312,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $3.1 million local (mostly property tax), $1.9 million state, $627,000 federal.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Relatively Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Barnes County about $12.6 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively High; social vulnerability: Relatively High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
79 bridges in Barnes County: 43 in good condition, 32 fair, and 4 poor (5.1%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| COUNTY HIWAY 0211 over I-94/SANBORN INTERCHANGE · built 1958 | 350 vehicles a day |
| ACCESS ROAD over INTERMITTANT CREEK · built 1973 | 50 vehicles a day |
| COUNTY ROAD over CREEK · built 1920 | 10 vehicles a day |
| COUNTY HIGHWAY over CREEK · built 1920 | 5 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $8.6 million of work in Barnes County in fiscal 2025, about $788 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for North Dakota are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Barnes County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Barnes County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of North Dakota: the state government and every county in North Dakota.
Nearby counties: Griggs County (36 mi) · Cass County (39 mi) · Steele County (39 mi) · LaMoure County (39 mi) · Ransom County (39 mi) · Stutsman County (42 mi).