Rensselaer County is located in eastern New York. It is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. Rensselaer County has a total area of approximately 665 square miles of which 98% is land and 2% water. As of the census of 2000, there were 152,538 people, 59,894 households, and 39,050 families residing in the Rensselaer County. It is the seventeenth most populous county in New York state. The county's name is in honor of the family of Killiaen Van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area.