Denton County, Texas

Denton County is a county in Texas, United States, about 35 miles north of downtown Dallas and
40 miles northeast of Fort Worth. It had a population of 906,422 at the 2020 census, an estimated
1,069,346 by 2025, and covers 878 square miles (2,270 km2) of land centred near 33°12′N 97°07′W.

Denton is the county seat and the county’s largest fully-contained city; its postal code is 76201. The county holds 23 cities, 18 incorporated towns, 4 census-designated places and 3
unincorporated communities, and it runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code is 48121.

Towns & Villages in Denton County

Denton County has 41 incorporated cities and towns on record, plus 4 census-designated places
and 3 unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. Several sit on county
lines and are counted here at their full citywide population even though most of that population
lives across the border — that split is explained below the table. CDP stands for census
designated place; Unincorp. covers business parks and rural crossroads with no formal boundary.

Nine of the places above straddle a county line, and their totals cover every resident
citywide, not just the Denton County share. Frisco, Celina and Prosper sit mostly in Collin
County; Carrollton and Coppell sit mostly in Dallas County; Southlake, Grapevine, Haslet and
Westlake sit mostly in Tarrant County. Only their edges — often new subdivisions on the
Denton side — actually fall inside the county. Three larger Metroplex cities also reach into
Denton County without appearing above: Dallas, Fort Worth and Plano each hold a small annexed
sliver of Denton County land, mostly undeveloped or industrial, with no meaningful year-round
population there. Lincoln Park, a small town once listed separately, was annexed by Little Elm in
April 2015 and no longer exists as its own municipality.

Denton County also has 4 census-designated places and 3 unincorporated communities:

Paloma Creek and Paloma Creek South are one master-planned community split into two census
areas by US 380 — Paloma Creek South is the larger of the pair. Alliance is an unincorporated
business park and logistics hub straddling Denton and Tarrant counties, built around Fort Worth
Alliance Airport and a BNSF Railway intermodal yard; its housing is annexed into Haslet, Fort
Worth, Westlake, Northlake, Denton and Roanoke, so it carries no separate census population.
Bolivar and Navo are rural crossroads communities with no incorporated government and no recent
population count. Denton County also has 13 recognized ghost towns from its 19th-century
settlement era — Alton, Camey Spur, Cooper Creek, Drop, Elizabethtown, Green Valley, Marshall
Creek, Mayhill, Mingo, Mustang, Parvin, Plainview and Stony — none with a resident population
today.

ZIP Codes

• 76201–76210 — Denton (ten ZIPs covering the city and Texas Woman’s University/UNT
  campuses; 76208 and 76210 are also shared with Corinth and Shady Shores)
• 75067 and 75057 — Lewisville
• 75022, 75027 and 75028 — Flower Mound
• 75034 — Frisco’s Denton County edge
• 75068 — Little Elm, Oak Point, Lakewood Village and the Paloma Creek CDPs
• 75056 — The Colony
• 76226 — Argyle, Bartonville, Corral City and Lantana
• 76227 — Aubrey, Providence Village, Krugerville, Cross Roads and Paloma Creek South
• 76247 — Northlake and Justin
• 76262 — Roanoke, Trophy Club and Westlake
• 75065 — Lake Dallas and Hickory Creek
• 75077 — Highland Village, Copper Canyon and Double Oak
• 76249 — Krum, 76266 — Sanger, 76258 — Pilot Point, 76259 — Ponder,
  75036 — Hackberry, 76052 — Haslet

DISH has no ZIP code of its own; mail there is delivered under a neighboring town’s code, a
side effect of its small size and its 2005 renaming from Clark, Texas in a naming-rights deal with
the satellite TV provider.

Geography

Denton County sits at the northern edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, straddling the
line between the Eastern Cross Timbers, a belt of oak woodland, and the Blackland Prairie to the
east. Of its 953 square miles, 878 are land and 75 are water, about 7.9 percent — higher than
most North Texas counties because of Lewisville Lake and Lake Ray Roberts, both built on the
Elm Fork of the Trinity River. Lewisville Lake, the county’s largest reservoir, supplies
drinking water and recreation to the southern half of the county; Ray Roberts Lake, on the county’s
northern edge, does the same for the north.

Cooke County lies to the north, Grayson County to the northeast, Collin County to the east,
Dallas County to the southeast, Tarrant County to the south, and Wise County to the west. Cooke County, Grayson County, Collin County and Dallas County all border Denton
directly, as does Tarrant County, home
to Fort Worth. Wise County borders Denton on the west but has no page on this site yet.

Demographics

Denton County had a population of 906,422 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the
county near 1,069,346 residents. Frisco and Carrollton are the two largest communities with land
in the county, though both are split with neighboring counties; Denton and Lewisville are the two
largest cities wholly or almost wholly inside Denton County’s own borders. Median household
income runs $111,498, well above Texas’s statewide figure of $75,780. The county’s
employed population reached 536,382 in 2024, and its population density works out to roughly
1,032 people per square mile of land — dense for Texas outside the state’s core urban
counties, reflecting three decades of suburban growth radiating out from Dallas and Fort Worth.

Economy & Local Life

Professional, scientific and technical services employ the most workers in the county, about
63,825 people, followed by health care and social assistance at 58,703 and retail trade at
56,640. Denton itself is home to Peterbilt’s truck manufacturing operations (about 2,000
employees) and the headquarters of Sally Beauty Company (about 1,000 employees), plus two large
universities: the University of North Texas, with roughly 46,940 students and 5,100 employees, the
county’s single largest employer, and Texas Woman’s University. Frisco’s
Denton-Collin border area has grown into a regional sports and entertainment hub anchored by The
Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters and training facility, and the PGA of America’s
relocated headquarters. The county’s biggest annual event is the North Texas State Fair and
Rodeo in Denton each September, drawing more than 150,000 people over its nine-day run since 1948.

History

The Texas Legislature created Denton County on 11 April 1846, one year after Texas joined the
United States, carving it from what had been Fannin County. It was named for John B. Denton, a
Methodist circuit-riding preacher, lawyer and Texas militia soldier killed on 24 May 1841 during
the Battle of Village Creek, a fight against Native American forces near present-day Arlington.
Denton, the town, took his name as county seat soon after.

In 1861, county residents narrowly voted for secession from the Union, 331 votes to 264, a
closer split than much of North Texas. The county stayed largely rural and agricultural —
cotton, then cattle and dairying — until the interstate highway system and, later, Dallas
Fort Worth International Airport’s 1974 opening just south of the county line, pulled its
southern half into the Metroplex’s suburban growth. Denton County ranked 29th nationally on
the Census Bureau’s list of fastest-growing counties between 2000 and 2007, a 41.4 percent
increase, and growth on that scale has continued since.

Getting There

Interstate 35 splits into I-35E and I-35W at Denton and runs the length of the county; US 77,
US 377 and US 380 cross it too, along with State Highways 114, 121 and 170 and the Sam Rayburn
Tollway (SH 121) and Loop 288. The Denton County Transportation Authority runs the A-train, a
commuter rail line linking Denton to Carrollton, where it connects to Dallas Area Rapid Transit
into downtown Dallas.

• Dallas — about 35 miles south
• Fort Worth — about 40 miles southwest
• Sherman — about 30 miles north
• McKinney — about 20 miles east

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, about 20 miles south of Denton, is the nearest major
commercial airport. Denton Enterprise Airport, on the city’s east side, handles general
aviation and charter traffic. The nearest Amtrak service is the Texas Eagle’s stop at Fort
Worth’s Texas & Pacific Station, reachable from Denton via the A-train and DART.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Denton County located?
It sits at the northern edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, about 35 miles north of
Dallas and 40 miles northeast of Fort Worth, bordered by Cooke, Grayson, Collin, Dallas, Tarrant
and Wise counties.

What is the population of Denton County?
906,422 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 1,069,346.

How big is Denton County?
953 square miles (2,468 km2) total, of which 878 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Denton County?
Denton is the county seat, incorporated well before the Civil War and now home to about 139,869
people, the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University.

How many towns and cities are in Denton County?
41 incorporated cities and towns carry land in the county, from Denton and Lewisville down to
Corral City’s 33 residents, plus 4 census-designated places and 3 unincorporated
communities.

What ZIP codes does Denton County use?
76201 through 76210 for Denton, 75067 for Lewisville, 75022 for Flower Mound, and around a dozen
more spread across the county’s smaller cities and towns — see the ZIP Codes section
above for the full list.

What is Denton County known for?
Two large state universities in the city of Denton, the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters and the
PGA of America’s relocated headquarters in Frisco, and being one of the fastest-growing
counties in the country for two decades running.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Texas.