Dutchess County, New York

Dutchess County is a county in New York, United States, about 70 miles north of New York City
on the east bank of the Hudson River. It had a population of 295,911 at the 2020 census, an
estimated 300,708 by 2025, and covers 825 square miles (2,140 km2) centred near 41°46′N 73°45′W.

Poughkeepsie is the county seat and the county’s largest city; its postal code is 12601.
The county holds 2 cities, 8 incorporated villages and 20 towns, and it runs on Eastern Time.

Towns & Villages in Dutchess County

Dutchess County has 32 named places on the Census Bureau’s current list: 2 independent
cities, 8 incorporated villages and 22 census-designated places (CDPs) — unincorporated
hamlets with no local government of their own. Every village and CDP sits inside one of the
county’s 20 towns, which are listed separately below.

Two places on this list straddle a town line. Wappingers Falls sits mostly in the town of
Wappinger, but its western edge reaches into the town of Poughkeepsie. Fairview, a Poughkeepsie
suburb bordering the city on its north side, is split between the town of Poughkeepsie and the
town of Hyde Park — the Census Bureau counts it as one CDP straddling both.

Townships

Every acre of Dutchess County outside its two cities lies inside one of 20 towns, New York’s
version of the civil township. Towns run their own local government, hold their own elections,
and can contain any mix of villages, CDPs and open countryside.

ZIP Codes

• 12601 — Poughkeepsie (also serves 12602 and 12603, city PO box ZIPs)
• 12508 — Beacon
• 12590 — Wappingers Falls (also covers Chelsea and Hughsonville)
• 12572 — Rhinebeck (also covers the Rhinecliff hamlet)
• 12524 — Fishkill
• 12564 — Pawling
• 12571 — Red Hook
• 12545 — Millbrook
• 12583 — Tivoli
• 12546 — Millerton
• 12533 — Hopewell Junction
• 12522 — Dover Plains
• 12567 — Pine Plains
• 12501 — Amenia
• 12504 — Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson)
• 12507 — Barrytown
• 12569 — Pleasant Valley
• 12538 — Hyde Park

Myers Corner, Fairview, Haviland, Red Oaks Mill, Merritt Park, New Hackensack, Chelsea Cove,
Hillside Lake, New Hamburg and Salt Point have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered
under a neighboring town or village’s code.

Geography

Dutchess County sits in the Hudson Valley’s Mid-Hudson region, on the Hudson River’s
east bank. Of its 825 square miles, about 796 are land and 30 are water — roughly 3.6
percent, mostly the Hudson itself along the county’s western border plus smaller lakes such
as Sylvan Lake in Beekman and Whaley Lake on the Pawling–Beekman line. The Taconic
Mountains rise along the eastern edge near the Connecticut line, while the western towns along
the Hudson are lower and more level.

Columbia County lies to the north, Litchfield County, Connecticut and Fairfield County,
Connecticut to the east, Putnam County to the south, Orange County across the Hudson to the
southwest, and Ulster County across the river to the west. Columbia County, Putnam County, Orange County and Ulster County all border Dutchess
directly; the Connecticut and Massachusetts neighbors have no county government of the New York
kind and no page on this site.

Demographics

Dutchess County had a population of 295,911 at the 2020 census, and the latest county estimate
puts it near 300,708 residents. The town of Poughkeepsie and the city of Poughkeepsie together
hold the largest concentration of residents, followed by the town of East Fishkill. Median
household income runs $99,478 (2024 ACS 1-year estimate), above New York’s statewide figure
of $82,095 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to roughly 372 people per square mile of
land, well above the statewide average outside New York City’s own boroughs, reflecting the
county’s place inside the wider New York metropolitan commuting range.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 24,012 people,
followed by educational services at 21,149 and retail trade at 16,477. IBM remains one of the
county’s largest private employers; its Poughkeepsie campus is the company’s primary
design and manufacturing center for its newest mainframe systems. Vassar College in the town of
Poughkeepsie and Marist University, also in Poughkeepsie, both anchor local employment alongside
health care, and the Culinary Institute of America runs its flagship campus in Hyde Park, on the
former St. Andrew-on-Hudson Jesuit novitiate grounds it bought in 1970. Beacon’s Dia Beacon
contemporary art museum, opened in 2003 in a former Nabisco box-printing plant, drew new
galleries, restaurants and residents to a city that had lost most of its factory jobs by the
1990s.

History

New York’s colonial assembly created Dutchess County on 1 November 1683 as one of the
colony’s original twelve counties, administered from neighboring Ulster County until it
organized its own government in 1713. It was named for Mary of Modena, Duchess of York and Albany
— wife of the future King James II — with “Dutchess” an archaic English
spelling of the title. Putnam County split off from Dutchess’s southern towns in 1812.

Poughkeepsie hosted New York’s 1788 convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution, and
briefly served as the state capital afterward. Franklin D. Roosevelt was born at Springwood, his
family’s Hyde Park estate, in 1882; he is buried there, and the property is now the Home of
Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. Beacon incorporated as a city in 1913, merging the
villages of Fishkill Landing and Matteawan, and by the early 1900s was known as the hat-making
capital of the United States, with nearly 50 hat factories running at once.

Getting There

Interstate 84 is the only interstate through the county, crossing its southwestern towns
east–west. US Route 9 runs the county’s length north–south along the Hudson, and
the Taconic State Parkway serves the eastern towns.

• New York City — about 75 miles south
• Albany — about 70 miles north
• Danbury, Connecticut — about 25 miles east
• Newburgh — about 10 miles southwest, across the Hudson

New York Stewart International Airport, in nearby Newburgh, Orange County, is the closest
commercial airport. Amtrak’s Empire Service stops at Poughkeepsie and Rhinecliff; Metro-North’s
Hudson Line runs to Poughkeepsie with stops at Beacon and New Hamburg, and its Harlem Line serves
the county’s eastern towns at Pawling, Wingdale, Dover Plains and Wassaic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Dutchess County located?
It sits in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, on the Hudson River’s east bank about 70
miles north of New York City, bordered by Columbia, Putnam, Orange and Ulster counties.

What is the population of Dutchess County?
295,911 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 300,708.

How big is Dutchess County?
825 square miles (2,140 km2), of which about 796 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Dutchess County?
Poughkeepsie, which also hosted New York’s 1788 convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

How many towns and villages are in Dutchess County?
Two cities — Poughkeepsie and Beacon — plus eight incorporated villages: Fishkill,
Millbrook, Millerton, Pawling, Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Tivoli and Wappingers Falls. All of the
county’s land outside the two cities is organized into 20 towns.

What ZIP codes does Dutchess County use?
12601 for Poughkeepsie, 12508 for Beacon, and separate codes for each village, including 12590
for Wappingers Falls and 12572 for Rhinebeck.

What is Dutchess County known for?
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Hyde Park estate, the Culinary Institute of America’s flagship
campus, and IBM’s Poughkeepsie mainframe plant.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in New York.