2,521 people (2024 Census estimate, −0.8% since 2020)
431 square miles of land · 6 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.
8 active community water systems list Pawnee County in the area they serve, reporting 2,945 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| PAWNEE CO RWD #1 groundwater · local government · NE3113304 | 1,500 served |
| PAWNEE CITY, CITY OF groundwater · local government · NE3113305 | 830 served |
| TABLE ROCK, VILLAGE OF groundwater · local government · NE3113308 | 247 served |
| DUBOIS, VILLAGE OF buys groundwater · local government · NE3113301 | 123 served |
| BURCHARD, VILLAGE OF buys groundwater · local government · NE3113303 | 82 served |
| STEINAUER, VILLAGE OF buys groundwater · local government · NE3113307 | 65 served |
| LEWISTON, VILLAGE OF buys groundwater · local government · NE3113306 | 58 served |
| PAWNEE CO RWD #2 buys groundwater · private · NE3121445 | 40 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 1 people were held in Pawnee County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2019), or 83 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2014 it was about 1.
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 Pawnee County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $5.7 million — $5.3 million to run schools, about $19,731 per student, plus $62,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $4.3 million local (mostly property tax), $1.9 million state, $397,000 federal. Long-term debt: $335,000.
Spent $6.4 million — $4.5 million to run schools, about $25,492 per student, plus $1.7 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $3.5 million local (mostly property tax), $817,000 state, $325,000 federal. Long-term debt: $1.2 million.
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: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Pawnee County about $2.4 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Moderate; social vulnerability: Relatively Moderate.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
191 bridges in Pawnee County: 68 in good condition, 57 fair, and 66 poor (34.6%). “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.
| N4 over N FK BIG NEMAHA RIVER · built 1950 | 1,385 vehicles a day |
| N4 over TURKEY CREEK · built 1966 | 570 vehicles a day |
| COLL 7901 over STREAM · built 1935 | 80 vehicles a day |
| COLL 7804 over TURKEY CREEK · built 1935 | 65 vehicles a day |
| COLL 7804 over TURKEY CREEK · built 1979 | 65 vehicles a day |
| FAS 3210 over WOLF CREEK · built 1976 | 50 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $12.7 million of work in Pawnee County in fiscal 2025, about $5,004 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 Nebraska 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 Pawnee 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 Pawnee County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Nebraska: the state government and every county in Nebraska.
Nearby counties: Johnson County (18 mi) · Gage County (24 mi) · Nemaha County (27 mi) · Nemaha County, KS (27 mi) · Richardson County (28 mi) · Marshall County, KS (29 mi).