Seneca County is located in western New York in the Finger Lakes region surrounded on the east by Cayuga Lake and on the west by Seneca Lake. Seneca County has a total area of approximately 391 square miles of which 73% is land and 17% water. As of the census of 2000, there were 33,342 people, 12,630 households, and 8,626 families residing in Seneca County, New York. Out of New York's 58 counties, it ranks as the sixth least populous one. The name is from the Iroquois (Seneca) that occupied part of the region.