Merced, California

Merced population, 2020 to 2024

Merced added 9,054 residents from July 2020 to July 2024, a change of +10.4%. In the latest year it moved by +1,883. Among 429 California places of 5,000 or more, that growth ranks 10th; the median place changed by -1.1%. The median place of 5,000+ in California has 37,056 people, so Merced is 2.6 times that size.

Merced covers 23.25 square miles of land, for 4,132 people per square mile of land. The median California place of 5,000+ has 3,725, so Merced is denser than the typical town.

What county Merced is in

All of Merced's residents live in Merced County, which had 296,774 residents in 2024. Merced holds 32.4% of the county's population. The shaded shape is on the map above; dots mark the eight nearest places.

ZIP codes in Merced

3 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) overlap Merced by at least 10% of the ZCTA's or the city's land: 95340, 95341, 95348. ZCTAs are Census approximations of USPS ZIP code delivery areas. The list comes from the 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file, so a city that annexed land after 2020 may reach into ZIP codes not listed here.

Where Merced is

The Census internal point of Merced is at 37.305700, -120.477900. Sacramento, the capital, is 103.8 miles NNW in a straight line. The nearest larger place is Modesto, CA (220,592 people), 36.8 miles away.

Daylight in Merced

At 37.31° N, Merced gets about 14 h 44 min of daylight around the June solstice and 9 h 36 min around the December solstice, a swing of 5 h 09 min. Figures are sunrise to sunset from the SunCalc model for June 21 and December 21, 2026.

Places near Merced

The eight nearest incorporated places of 1,000+ in California, measured between internal points. The closest is Atwater, 7.4 miles away, with 32,248 people.