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The Commemorative Quarter for California







Welcome to Merced ...

The city of Merced is located in Merced County<1> and is the County Seat for Merced County.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Merced, you might consider that their post office opened  in 1870.

The city was incorporated April 1, 1889.

From the  Census Estimates for 2019, Merced has a population of 84,678 people<2> (see below for details).

Merced is 170 feet [52 m] above sea level.<3>.

Time Zone: Merced lies in the Pacific Time Zone (PST/PDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Merced: 209 & 350<4>

The ZIP codes for Merced: 95340-95341, 95343-95344, 95348<5>

Population Details ...

Taken from the 2019 Census Estimates, Merced had an population of 84,678 people. This is an increase of 7.24% since the 2010 Census (or an increase of 32.53% since the 2000 Census).

At the time of the 2010 Census, Merced had a population of 78,958 people (or 30.76% of the total population of Merced County). This makes Merced the county's most populous community.

The population of Merced represents 0.21% of the total population of California (which has 37,253,956 people), making it the state's 95th most populous community.

With a 2010 count of 78,958 people, the population of Merced increased 23.58% from the 2000 Census (with a count of 63,893 people).

More information can be found on the Census Page for Merced.

Communities Also Named Merced ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found another community named Merced - it's located in Arkansas.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Merced.

Websites for Merced ...

Official Website:   www.cityofmerced.org/

Chamber of Commerce:   www.merced-chamber.com/

Communities near Merced ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Merced.

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Merced. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Merced.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Merced. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Merced.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Merced. Our list includes 19 papers. See our Newspapers Page for Merced.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Merced ...

Looking for more information about Merced? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

In addition to the Tourism page for Merced, there are neighboring communities that also have Tourism pages. More information about those communities can be found on our TripAdvisor Page for Merced.

Adding Merced to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Merced in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Merced was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<8>

X2X - From that list, the Merced post office opened in 1870.

We also found Merced in the book titled Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895).

For more details, see References and Mentions for Merced.

The official website for Merced: www.cityofmerced.org/

The official website for Merced County: www.co.merced.ca.us/

The official website for State of California: https://www.ca.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of California's counties, including Merced, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>Population counts have been provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. For more detail, please visit our Census Page for Merced.
<3>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Merced - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<4>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 209 code has been Overlayed with the 350 area code. New phone numbers in the Merced area will be assigned with one of these codes: 209 or 350. As a result, placing a call in the Merced area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<5>ZIP Codes have been created by the United States Postal Service (USPS) as a way of grouping addresses to make delivery more efficient. The boundaries of the ZIP Code can be changed, re-assigned, eliminated or overlapped with other ZIP Codes. So keep in mind that any given ZIP Code is only 'loosely' associated with a city (such as Merced). When looking for a ZIP Code, whether Merced or elsewhere, it's always best to check the website of the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Our list of ZIP Codes for Merced includes: 95340, 95343 & 95344.
<6>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<7>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<8>A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025