Counties With the Highest Concentration of Data Centers and Power Vulnerability

By Evan Comen  •  October 7, 2025
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Soaring demand for data centers is powering one of the largest infrastructure buildouts in U.S. history. Tech companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars in the race to control the future of AI, creating boomtowns overnight while placing unprecedented demand on local electric grids.

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A number of factors – availability of power, presence of high-capacity fiber-optic networks, tax incentives, and proximity to corporate customers – dictate where and how data centers are built. The scramble to build AI infrastructure has resulted in several well-known clusters of data centers in the U.S., such as “Data Center Alley” in Virginia, and many lesser-known pockets of computing infrastructure. In five counties, there are more than 30 known data centers per 100,000 residents. But while data centers offer the promise of economic development, they also threaten to strain power grids and hike utility bills. A closer look at the data reveals the counties with the highest concentrations of data centers.

To identify the counties with the highest concentrations of data centers, Climate Crisis 247 reviewed data on known data center locations from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Counties were ranked based on the number of known data centers within their boundaries as of September 2025 per 100,000 residents. Supplemental data on the Power Stress Vulnerability Index are from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

20. Washington County, OR

Photo by Dziana Hasanbekava on Pexels

  • Data center concentration: 3.8 locations per 100,000 residents (23 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 92.0/100 (Major)
  • Largest data centers: Flexential Portland - Hillsboro 3, Digital Realty PDX11 Data Center, NTT RagingWire Data Center, Stack Infrastructure Portland 2 Data Center
 

19. Douglas County, GA

Photo by Casey Lovegrove on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 4.1 locations per 100,000 residents (6 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 68.2/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Google Datacenter - Douglas County, Digital Realty Atlanta ATL11, Flexential Atlanta - Douglasville 2, Centersquare Atlanta ATL1
 

18. Berkeley County, SC

Photo by Melissa De Yoe on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 4.2 locations per 100,000 residents (10 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 84.7/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Google Berkeley County Data Center, Google
 

17. Somerset County, NJ

Photo by Lexi Zotomayor on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 4.3 locations per 100,000 residents (15 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 94.9/100 (Major)
  • Largest data centers: CyrusOne Somerset, Goldman Sachs, Verizon Wireless NE Headquarters
 

16. Polk County, IA

Photo by Niko Vassios on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 4.4 locations per 100,000 residents (22 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 88.5/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Facebook Altoona Data Center, Project Alluvion, Facebook Altoona Data Center 5, Meta
 

15. Platte County, MO

Photo by Elaine M on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 4.6 locations per 100,000 residents (5 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 79.3/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Black Rock Financial Management
 

14. Dallas County, IA

Photo by JoAnn Brahms on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 5.8 locations per 100,000 residents (6 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 51.4/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Apple, Microsoft
 

13. Sarpy County, NE

Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 7.2 locations per 100,000 residents (14 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 55.0/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Sarpy County Power Park East, Facebook Data Center, Meta Sarpy Data center, Google
 

12. Valencia County, NM

Photo by Tom Spross on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 7.8 locations per 100,000 residents (6 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 49.3/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Meta Los Lunas Data Center, Meta
 

11. Licking County, OH

Photo by Cortland Smith-Kerr on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 8.9 locations per 100,000 residents (16 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 90.9/100 (Major)
  • Largest data centers: Amazon New Albany: Jug and Beach Road, Amazon Web Services Datacenter Complex, Meta New Albany Data Center, Google
 

10. Warren County, IA

Photo by Demian Tejeda-Benitez on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 11.2 locations per 100,000 residents (6 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 61.4/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Project Osmium, Microsoft
 

9. Prince William County, VA

Photo by Naveen Naidu on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 12.0 locations per 100,000 residents (58 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 89.6/100 (Major)
  • Largest data centers: CloudHQ MCC1, CloudHQ MCC2, Google
 

8. Laramie County, WY

Photo by nicole pate on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 13.9 locations per 100,000 residents (14 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 23.2/100 (Minor)
  • Largest data centers: Microsoft CYS Datacenter, MineOne Wyoming Data Center, NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center
 

7. Pottawattamie County, IA

Photo by Robert Gareth on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 21.4 locations per 100,000 residents (20 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 73.0/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Google data center Council Bluffs, CyrusOne OCB1 Council Bluffs, Google
 

6. Douglas County, WA

Photo by Gabriel Cox on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 29.7 locations per 100,000 residents (13 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 52.7/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Intergate Columbia, Actapio, Intergate Columbia A, Microsoft EAT02
 

5. Umatilla County, OR

Photo by Ryan Pohanic on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 31.2 locations per 100,000 residents (25 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 70.8/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Amazon PDX69, Amazon PDX57/60, Amazon PDX51/54, Amazon PDX63
 

4. Grant County, WA

Photo by Rachel Sinn on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 37.8 locations per 100,000 residents (38 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 78.4/100 (Moderate)
  • Largest data centers: Microsoft MWH Data Center, Intergate Quincy Data Center, NTTData Data Center, H5 Data Center
 

3. Loudoun County, VA

Photo by Teslariu Mihai on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 46.6 locations per 100,000 residents (199 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 92.5/100 (Major)
  • Largest data centers: Digital Loudoun Plaza, Google Data Center, NTT Ashburn Campus, AWS
 

2. Crook County, OR

Photo by Brian W on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 50.7 locations per 100,000 residents (13 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 15.8/100 (Minor)
  • Largest data centers: Facebook Prineville Datacenter, Apple Prineville Datacenter, Meta Prineville Data Center, Meta Prineville Data Center, phase 3
 

1. Morrow County, OR

Photo by Heidi Turrell on Unsplash

  • Data center concentration: 187.8 locations per 100,000 residents (23 total)
  • Power Stress Vulnerability Index score: 35.4/100 (Minor)
  • Largest data centers: Amazon Web Services us-west-2, Amazon Web Services, Amazon PDX93, Amazon PDX92