THE HOWARD COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Central Nebraska Loess Plains setting.
Howard County has 569.3 square miles of land in Nebraska. 2 mapped landscape regions meet across Howard County: Central Nebraska Loess Plains, Platte River Valley.
These plains are lower and somewhat more irregular than the High Plains to the west. Their grassland setting includes rolling terrain and a transition toward greater rainfall in the east.
Regional context: Central Great Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Howard County intersects 2 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Central Nebraska Loess Plains67.4%
- Platte River Valley32.6%
Finding your parcel within Howard County
The atlas lists 8 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Howard County, including St. Paul, Howard City (Boelus), Cotesfield. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Howard County by land and water
The Census records 6.32 square miles of water within Howard County, or 1.1% of its total area. That share is close to Howard County’s 1.1%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Howard County has 453.6 times the land area of nearby St. Paul city (1.26 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Buffalo County, Greeley County, Hall County, Merrick County, Nance County, Sherman County within Nebraska. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

