Tulare County, California

Tulare County is a county in California, United States, about 45 miles southeast of Fresno in the southern San Joaquin Valley. It had a population of 473,117 at the 2020 census, an estimated 485,146 by 2025, and covers 4,839 square miles (12,530 km2) centred near 36°14′N 118°48′W.

Visalia is the county seat and largest city; its postal code is 93277. The county holds 8 incorporated cities and 21 unincorporated communities recognized by the Census Bureau, and it runs on Pacific Time. Its FIPS code is 06107.

Towns & Villages in Tulare County

Tulare County has 29 named places on record: 8 incorporated cities and 21 census-designated places (CDPs) with no local government of their own. CDP stands for census designated place; several dozen smaller mountain resorts, farm-labor settlements and rail sidings carry names on topographic maps but have no Census population count and are not listed here.

Four places share the 93257 ZIP centered on Porterville’s post office: Porterville itself, East Porterville, Poplar-Cotton Center and Woodville, none of which have a ZIP of their own. East Porterville is unincorporated and separate from the City of Porterville next door — it drew national attention in 2014-2016 when hundreds of household wells ran dry during California’s drought. Terra Bella and neighboring Strathmore are both small citrus-packing communities on State Route 65 and are easy to mix up on a map.

ZIP Codes

• 93277 — Visalia (the city also uses 93278, 93279 and 93290 through 93292)
• 93274 — Tulare (also serves 93275)
• 93257 — Porterville (also serves East Porterville, Poplar-Cotton Center and Woodville)
• 93618 — Dinuba
• 93247 — Lindsay
• 93223 — Farmersville
• 93221 — Exeter
• 93647 — Orosi
• 93219 — Earlimart (also serves Allensworth)
• 93286 — Woodlake
• 93227 — Goshen
• 93615 — Cutler
• 93235 — Ivanhoe
• 93256 — Pixley
• 93270 — Terra Bella
• 93267 — Strathmore
• 93272 — Tipton
• 93261 — Richgrove
• 93271 — Three Rivers
• 93265 — Springville (the mountain part above town uses 93208)
• 93201 — Alpaugh
• 93673 — Traver
• 93218 — Ducor
• 93282 — Waukena

Teviston has no ZIP code of its own; mail there is delivered under a neighboring community’s code.

Geography

Tulare County spans the full width of the southern San Joaquin Valley, from flat farmland on its western edge to the crest of the Sierra Nevada on its eastern border. Of its 4,839 square miles, 4,823 are land and 14 are water, about 0.3 percent — the county has no large natural lake, and its biggest reservoirs are Lake Kaweah, behind Terminus Dam near Three Rivers, and Success Lake, behind Success Dam east of Porterville. Sequoia National Park, established in 1890 as the second national park in the country, covers much of the county’s eastern third; Three Rivers is the park’s gateway town, and Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States at 14,505 feet, sits on the county’s eastern boundary with Inyo County.

Fresno County lies to the north, Inyo County to the east, Kern County to the south, and Kings County to the west. Fresno County, Inyo County and Kern County all have their own pages on this site; Kings County does not.

Demographics

Tulare County had a population of 473,117 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the county near 485,146 residents. Visalia and Tulare are by far the two largest communities, together holding well over 40 percent of the county’s population. Median household income runs $71,300, well below California’s statewide figure of $95,521. Population density works out to roughly 98 people per square mile of land, low for California and concentrated almost entirely in the valley-floor cities — the mountain half of the county, in and around Sequoia National Park, is nearly empty.

Economy & Local Life

Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting employs the most workers in the county, about 28,400 people, followed by health care and social assistance at 26,024 and retail trade at 20,204. Dairy is the single biggest revenue source, bringing in more than $1 billion a year in milk sales, and in 2001 Tulare became the top county in the country for agricultural revenue at $3.5 billion, ahead of neighboring Fresno County. The County of Tulare itself is the largest employer at roughly 5,106 workers, followed by Visalia Unified School District at 3,355 and Kaweah Delta Medical Center, the region’s largest hospital, at about 2,000. Sierra View Medical Center in Porterville and College of the Sequoias in Visalia are the other major regional institutions. The county’s biggest annual event is the World Ag Expo, held each February at the International Agri-Center in Tulare — it draws more than 100,000 visitors and 1,200 exhibitors and bills itself as the largest outdoor agricultural exposition in the world.

History

California’s legislature created Tulare County in 1852, one of the state’s original 27 counties, naming it for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. The name comes from the tule rushes that lined the lake’s shores. Irrigation and levee projects drained most of the lake for farmland by the early 20th century, and the dry lakebed now sits in neighboring Kings County, which split off from Tulare’s western half in 1893. Visalia was surveyed in 1852 — named for founder Nathaniel Vise’s hometown of Visalia, Kentucky — and became the county seat in 1853, a status it has held ever since.

The county’s Sierra foothills hold the Tule River Indian Reservation, established by executive order of President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873 for Yokuts, Western Mono, Tübatulabal and Owens Valley Paiute families displaced after the Tule River Indian War of 1856. The reservation, east of Porterville, covers about 55,356 acres and remains home to the federally recognized Tule River Tribe.

Getting There

State Route 99 runs the length of the county through Tulare, Visalia and the smaller cities on the valley floor; no interstate highway crosses the county. State Routes 65, 198, 190, 137, 216, 63, 43, 180 and 201 also serve the county, with Route 198 climbing east from Visalia into Sequoia National Park.

• Fresno — about 45 miles northwest
• Bakersfield — about 55 miles south
• Hanford — about 20 miles west
• Bishop — about 90 miles northeast, across the Sierra crest

Fresno Yosemite International Airport, about 45 miles northwest of Visalia, is the nearest major commercial airport; Visalia Municipal Airport handles general aviation. Amtrak has no station in the county — its Thruway motorcoach service connects Visalia to the nearest Amtrak station, in Hanford, Kings County.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Tulare County located?
It sits in the southern San Joaquin Valley and the adjoining Sierra Nevada, about 45 miles southeast of Fresno, bordered by Fresno, Inyo, Kern and Kings counties.

What is the population of Tulare County?
473,117 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 485,146.

How big is Tulare County?
4,839 square miles (12,530 km2), of which 4,823 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Tulare County?
Visalia, surveyed in 1852 and county seat since 1853, is the seat and largest city.

How many towns and cities are in Tulare County?
Eight incorporated cities — Visalia, Tulare, Porterville, Dinuba, Lindsay, Farmersville, Exeter and Woodlake — plus 21 unincorporated communities including Orosi, Earlimart and Cutler.

What ZIP codes does Tulare County use?
93277 for Visalia, 93274 for Tulare, 93257 for Porterville and its rural neighbors, plus a separate code for each smaller city and CDP listed above.

What is Tulare County known for?
Dairy and citrus farming, the World Ag Expo in Tulare, and Sequoia National Park, home of the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree on Earth by volume.

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