[3] Box Elder County is part of the Ogden-Clearfield, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem, UT Combined Statistical Area.

Box Elder County is home to two regional campuses of Utah State University (located in Brigham City and Tremonton).

Its boundaries were altered in 1862 by adjustments between counties and in 1866 when all its area in the now-existent state of Nevada (which had gained territorial status in 1861 and statehood in 1864) was formally partitioned.

[4][5] The California Trail followed Goose Creek from a point just north of the Idaho/Utah border southwest across northwestern Box Elder County to Little Goose Creek in northeastern Elko County, Nevada.

The Spiral Jetty, an earthwork sculpture by Robert Smithson, was built on the north shore of the Great Salt Lake in Box Elder County in 1970.

On November 19, 2005, sculptor Zaq Landsberg declared his plot to be independent from the United States, creating the Republic of Zaqistan.

Its territory includes large tracts of barren desert, contrasted by high, forested mountains.

The Wasatch Front lies along the south-eastern border, where the main cities are found.

[8] The terrain generally slopes to the south (toward the Great Salt Lake), although the NW corner of the county slopes to the north, allowing runoff from that area to flow to the Snake River drainage.

The county's highest point is a mountain ridge near the NW corner, at 9,180 ft (2,800 m) ASL.

There were 18,678 households in Box Elder County with an average size of 3.09 of which 14,609 (78.2%) were families and 4,069 (21.8%) were non-families.