Nye County, Nevada
Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At 18,159 square miles (47,030 km2), Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, behind San Bernardino County, California and Coconino County, Arizona.
Nye County includes the Pahrump micropolitan statistical area, which is also included in the Las Vegas-Henderson combined statistical area.
In 2010, Nevada's center of population was in southern Nye County, near Yucca Mountain.
The Nevada Test Site and proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository are in southwestern Nye County, and are the focus of a great deal of controversy. The federal government manages 92% of the county's land. A 1987 attempt to stop the nuclear waste site resulted in the creation of Bullfrog County, Nevada, which was dissolved two years later.
The county has several environmentally sensitive areas, including Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, the White River Valley, several Great Basin sky islands, and part of Death Valley National Park. Visitors to Death Valley often stay at Beatty or Amargosa Valley.
Nye County is one of 10 Nevada counties where prostitution is legal. The county has no incorporated cities. The seat of government in Tonopah is 160 miles (260 km) from Pahrump, where about 86% of the county's population resides.