Chemung County, New York

Chemung County is a county in New York, United States, in the Southern Tier along the
Pennsylvania border. It had a population of 84,148 at the 2020 census, an estimated 80,415 by
2025, and covers 407 square miles of land (1,050 km2) plus 3.4 square miles of water, centred near
42°08′N 76°46′W.

Elmira is the county seat and the county’s only city; its postal code is 14901. The county
holds 1 city, 5 incorporated villages and 11 towns, with several unincorporated hamlets scattered
among them, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 36015.

Towns & Villages in Chemung County

Chemung County has 14 named places worth noting on a map: 1 independent city, 5 incorporated
villages, 3 substantial census-designated places (CDPs) and 5 smaller unincorporated hamlets. CDP
stands for census designated place, a populated area with no local government of its own;
Unincorp. covers hamlets and crossroads communities.

Two pairs on this list are easy to confuse. Elmira the city is legally independent of any
town, while the Town of Elmira is a separate 6,872-person jurisdiction wrapped around it —
West Elmira sits inside the town, not the city. Van Etten was an incorporated village until its
residents voted to dissolve it in 2017; the dissolution took effect on 31 December 2018, and the
hamlet now has no government of its own, only the surrounding Town of Van Etten.

Townships

New York’s 11 towns function as the county’s civil townships, and every acre outside
Elmira city falls inside one. Sorted by 2020 population:

ZIP Codes

• 14901, 14904, 14905 — Elmira (city and West Elmira)
• 14845 — Horseheads (also serves the town’s rural routes)
• 14903 — Elmira Heights
• 14814 — Big Flats
• 14894 — Wellsburg
• 14864 — Millport
• 14889 — Van Etten
• 14825 — Chemung
• 14838 — Erin
• 14816 — Breesport
• 14871 — Pine City
• 14861 — Lowman

North Chemung, Hicks, Sullivanville, Midway and Tompkins Corners have no ZIP code of their own;
mail there is delivered under the nearest post office town’s code, usually Elmira, Erin or
Millport.

Geography

Chemung County sits in New York’s Southern Tier, a hill-country belt just north of the
Pennsylvania line at the southern edge of the Finger Lakes region. Of its 411 square miles, 407
are land and 3.4 are water, about 0.8 percent — low, since the county has no large natural
lake. The Chemung River, formed at Painted Post to the west and running east through Elmira and
Big Flats, is the dominant waterway and gives the county its name.

Schuyler County and Tompkins County lie to the north, Tioga County, New York to the east,
Steuben County to the west, and Tioga County, Pennsylvania and Bradford County, Pennsylvania to
the south. Schuyler County, Tompkins County, Tioga County, New York, Steuben County, Tioga County, Pennsylvania and
Bradford County,
Pennsylvania all border Chemung directly.

Demographics

Chemung County had a population of 84,148 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the
county near 80,415 residents. Elmira and Horseheads village are the two largest communities,
followed by the Southport and Big Flats CDPs. Median household income runs $63,716, well below New
York’s statewide figure of $82,095 (2023 ACS). Non-Hispanic white residents make up about
83 percent of the population, with Black residents at roughly 6 percent and Hispanic or Latino
residents at roughly 3.5 percent, per the 2020 census.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, with about
6,461 workers, followed by manufacturing at 5,410 and retail trade at 4,560. Hardinge Inc., a
precision machine-tool maker, and Kennedy Valve, a waterworks-equipment manufacturer, both run
Elmira-area plants that trace back more than a century of the city’s industrial history.
CAF USA builds passenger rail cars in the county for transit systems around the country. Elmira
College and a branch campus of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine anchor the county’s
education and health sectors. Harris Hill in Big Flats is home to the National Soaring Museum,
founded in 1969 on the site where the first 13 National Soaring Contests were held between 1930
and 1946, a legacy of Schweizer Aircraft’s glider works in Elmira.

History

New York’s legislature formed Chemung County on 29 March 1836, carving it out of Tioga
County. The name comes from a Delaware-language word for a Native American village whose meaning
is usually translated as “big horn.” In 1854 the state cut 110 square miles from the
county’s northern end to help form Schuyler County.

Elmira held a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp from 1864 to 1865 where 12,123 soldiers were
held and 2,963 died, a death rate that earned it the nickname “Hellmira” among
survivors. In 1876 the city opened the Elmira Reformatory, the nation’s first reformatory
prison; under superintendent Zebulon Brockway it introduced education, vocational training and
parole-style incentives instead of pure punishment, and the model was copied by six other states
before 1900. Mark Twain, who summered in Elmira for two decades and wrote much of his best-known
work there, is buried in the city’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

Getting There

Interstate 86 and NY Route 17, the Southern Tier Expressway, cross the county through Elmira,
Horseheads and Big Flats. NY Route 14 runs north–south between Watkins Glen and
Pennsylvania, NY Route 13 ends in Elmira after crossing from Cortland and Ithaca, and NY Route
352 links Elmira to Corning.

• Corning — west via NY-352
• Ithaca — north via NY-13
• Binghamton — east via I-86
• Watkins Glen — north via NY-14

Elmira Corning Regional Airport, seven miles northwest of downtown Elmira in the Town of Big
Flats, offers non-stop service to Detroit and seasonal flights to Atlanta and Florida. No Amtrak
line reaches Chemung County; New York Trailways, Short Line and OurBus run intercity buses out of
Elmira to Binghamton, Rochester and New York City.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Chemung County located?
It sits in New York’s Southern Tier along the Pennsylvania border, bordered by Schuyler,
Tompkins, Tioga (NY), Steuben, Tioga (PA) and Bradford (PA) counties.

What is the population of Chemung County?
84,148 at the 2020 census, with an estimate near 80,415 by 2025.

How big is Chemung County?
411 square miles total (1,050 km2), of which 407 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Chemung County?
Elmira, the county’s only city, founded as the seat when the county formed in 1836.

How many towns and villages are in Chemung County?
Five incorporated villages — Horseheads, Elmira Heights, Wellsburg, Millport and the
now-dissolved Van Etten — spread across 11 towns, plus the independent city of Elmira.

What ZIP codes does Chemung County use?
14901, 14904 and 14905 for Elmira; 14845 for Horseheads; 14903 for Elmira Heights; and smaller
codes for Big Flats, Wellsburg, Millport, Van Etten, Chemung, Erin, Breesport, Pine City and
Lowman.

What is Chemung County known for?
The Elmira Reformatory, the first US prison built around rehabilitation, and Harris Hill, the
birthplace of American competitive gliding and home to the National Soaring Museum.

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