California has 58 counties in the October 2026 edition of the county index and 11,362,273 property records across them, 8.7% of the records in the whole index. Of the other states, 1 holds more. Divided among its counties, those records make an average file of 195,901, the 3rd highest average of the 51 states and districts.
This report sets out the full ranking first and then reads it in four ways: the files that pass a million records, the places in the ranking where file size drops sharply, the balance between the state’s northern and southern counties, and what the ranking means for buying the state a few counties at a time. Every county is also listed alphabetically on the California state page.
- Counties
- 58
- Property records
- 11,362,273
- Median county file
- 70,421
- Files of a million or more
- 1
The ranking
Table 1 lists every California county by record count. Alongside each county’s share of the state and the running share, the last column compares the file with the median California county of 70,421 records: a value of 2.0 means twice the median, 0.5 means half. Los Angeles County leads with 2,275,994 records, 20.0% of the state and 32 times the median. Alpine County closes the list with 1,847 records.
| Rank | County | Records | Share of California | Running share | × median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles County | 2,275,994 | 20.0% | 20.0% | 32.3 |
| 2 | San Diego County | 924,807 | 8.1% | 28.2% | 13.1 |
| 3 | Orange County | 839,615 | 7.4% | 35.6% | 11.9 |
| 4 | Riverside County | 795,456 | 7.0% | 42.6% | 11.3 |
| 5 | San Bernardino County | 684,937 | 6.0% | 48.6% | 9.7 |
| 6 | Santa Clara County | 516,798 | 4.5% | 53.1% | 7.3 |
| 7 | Sacramento County | 490,993 | 4.3% | 57.5% | 7.0 |
| 8 | Alameda County | 449,879 | 4.0% | 61.4% | 6.4 |
| 9 | Contra Costa County | 373,244 | 3.3% | 64.7% | 5.3 |
| 10 | Kern County | 282,743 | 2.5% | 67.2% | 4.0 |
| 11 | Fresno County | 282,232 | 2.5% | 69.7% | 4.0 |
| 12 | Ventura County | 247,787 | 2.2% | 71.9% | 3.5 |
| 13 | San Joaquin County | 243,262 | 2.1% | 74.0% | 3.5 |
| 14 | San Francisco County | 221,421 | 1.9% | 75.9% | 3.1 |
| 15 | San Mateo County | 211,861 | 1.9% | 77.8% | 3.0 |
| 16 | Sonoma County | 187,997 | 1.7% | 79.5% | 2.7 |
| 17 | Placer County | 180,569 | 1.6% | 81.1% | 2.6 |
| 18 | Stanislaus County | 165,310 | 1.5% | 82.5% | 2.3 |
| 19 | Solano County | 140,641 | 1.2% | 83.7% | 2.0 |
| 20 | Tulare County | 138,742 | 1.2% | 85.0% | 2.0 |
| 21 | Santa Barbara County | 123,256 | 1.1% | 86.1% | 1.8 |
| 22 | San Luis Obispo County | 117,455 | 1.0% | 87.1% | 1.7 |
| 23 | Monterey County | 111,846 | 0.98% | 88.1% | 1.6 |
| 24 | El Dorado County | 96,191 | 0.85% | 88.9% | 1.4 |
| 25 | Santa Cruz County | 90,413 | 0.80% | 89.7% | 1.3 |
| 26 | Marin County | 86,851 | 0.76% | 90.5% | 1.2 |
| 27 | Butte County | 86,176 | 0.76% | 91.2% | 1.2 |
| 28 | Merced County | 79,520 | 0.70% | 91.9% | 1.1 |
| 29 | Shasta County | 73,955 | 0.65% | 92.6% | 1.1 |
| 30 | Imperial County | 66,886 | 0.59% | 93.2% | 0.9 |
| 31 | Lake County | 65,126 | 0.57% | 93.7% | 0.9 |
| 32 | Yolo County | 63,323 | 0.56% | 94.3% | 0.9 |
| 33 | Nevada County | 60,908 | 0.54% | 94.8% | 0.9 |
| 34 | Humboldt County | 55,843 | 0.49% | 95.3% | 0.8 |
| 35 | Madera County | 53,793 | 0.47% | 95.8% | 0.8 |
| 36 | Napa County | 46,798 | 0.41% | 96.2% | 0.7 |
| 37 | Mendocino County | 42,299 | 0.37% | 96.6% | 0.6 |
| 38 | Kings County | 42,006 | 0.37% | 97.0% | 0.6 |
| 39 | Calaveras County | 35,472 | 0.31% | 97.3% | 0.5 |
| 40 | Tuolumne County | 30,843 | 0.27% | 97.5% | 0.4 |
| 41 | Sutter County | 30,827 | 0.27% | 97.8% | 0.4 |
| 42 | Yuba County | 30,041 | 0.26% | 98.1% | 0.4 |
| 43 | Tehama County | 28,511 | 0.25% | 98.3% | 0.4 |
| 44 | Plumas County | 23,029 | 0.20% | 98.5% | 0.3 |
| 45 | San Benito County | 21,800 | 0.19% | 98.7% | 0.3 |
| 46 | Siskiyou County | 21,143 | 0.19% | 98.9% | 0.3 |
| 47 | Amador County | 20,822 | 0.18% | 99.1% | 0.3 |
| 48 | Mono County | 15,036 | 0.13% | 99.2% | 0.2 |
| 49 | Del Norte County | 13,735 | 0.12% | 99.3% | 0.2 |
| 50 | Lassen County | 13,244 | 0.12% | 99.5% | 0.2 |
| 51 | Trinity County | 12,235 | 0.11% | 99.6% | 0.2 |
| 52 | Mariposa County | 11,689 | 0.10% | 99.7% | 0.2 |
| 53 | Glenn County | 10,688 | 0.09% | 99.8% | 0.2 |
| 54 | Inyo County | 9,280 | 0.08% | 99.9% | 0.1 |
| 55 | Colusa County | 7,637 | 0.07% | 99.9% | 0.1 |
| 56 | Modoc County | 4,731 | 0.04% | 100.0% | 0.1 |
| 57 | Sierra County | 2,730 | 0.02% | 100.0% | 0.0 |
| 58 | Alpine County | 1,847 | 0.02% | 100.0% | 0.0 |
Source: county index. Ties are ordered by name. “× median” is the county’s records divided by the median California county’s.
Files of a million records or more
One California county passes a million records: Los Angeles County, with 2,275,994, 20.0% of the state on its own. A file of that size is a different object from a typical county file. It can be filtered down to a single city, ZIP code or property type and still return more rows than many whole counties elsewhere in the state, so it is usually worked in slices rather than end to end.
Where the ranking drops
Reading down Table 1, file sizes do not fall at an even pace. In the upper half of the ranking, the sharpest drop between two neighbouring counties comes between 1st and 2nd place, where Los Angeles County (2,275,994) gives way to San Diego County (924,807), a file 2.5 times smaller. Across that upper half, 17 of the 28 steps from one county to the next are drops of less than 10%, so long runs of counties there have files of similar size.
Gaps like these are worth knowing when choosing files. Where neighbouring ranks are close in size, swapping one county for the next changes little about the volume of a list. Where there is a sharp drop, the county above it is in a different class from the county below, and a buyer comparing them should expect a different amount of work from each.
North and south
Splitting the state by the latitude of each county’s centre, at 37.99°N (the middle value among California’s counties), puts 29 counties in a northern group and 29 in a southern one. The southern group holds more of the state’s records: 83.0% of the records in the two groups combined.
Southern counties (29): 9,427,911 records (83.0%)Northern counties (29): 1,934,362 records (17.0%)
The split is by county count, not by area or by any official regional line, which keeps it reproducible from the index alone. Its purpose is narrow: to show whether the state’s records lean towards one end of the state. The largest southern file is Los Angeles County and the largest northern file is Sacramento County.
Above and below the average
The average California county holds 195,901 records, but only 15 of the 58 counties have more than that. The other 43 fall below it. That imbalance is why the median, 70,421, is the better guide to what a typical California county file contains: the average is lifted by the few largest files.
Buying California a few counties at a time
A five-county bundle at $49/mo takes any 5 counties. Filled with California’s 5 largest files, it covers 48.6% of the state’s records. A second bundle of the next 5, ranked 6 to 10, would add 18.6%. Taking every county in the state would come to $588 a month at current prices, using whichever mix of bundles and $19/mo single counties is cheaper. Most buyers need far less than that: a market defined by one metro area usually means a handful of adjacent counties, and each county page lists its nearest neighbours to help assemble one.
About the figures
Counts are property records in each county file, one per property, taken from the October 2026 edition of the county index and recalculated daily so the ranking follows each monthly edition. Shares are of the California total. County centres come from the coordinates stored with the index. For the state’s place among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, see property records by state; for the largest files nationwide, see the largest county property files.
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