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Cobalt-doped (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were deposited on silicon wafers by a chemical bath deposition technique. Variations in energy band gap and stress due to cobalt doping were analyzed by X-ray diffraction techniques, optical measurements and modeled by density functional theory calculations. Also, the direct residual stress in ZnO nanorods was investigated by measuring the difference in curvature across the doped ZnO thin films deposited on a silicon substrate using the Bow Optic wafer stress measurement system. The stress in doped ZnO films was found to be of compressive in nature. The residual stress in doped ZnO thin films was found in the range of 0.0427–1.0174 GPa. The residual stress was also found to scale with the cobalt doping concentration in ZnO thin film. Also, the crystalline structure of various cobalt doped ZnO nanorods films was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis to be of the wurtzite structure. The bandgap of cobalt-doped ZnO was red-shifted from 3.30 eV to 3.21 eV as the cobalt concentration in ZnO nanostructures varied from 0% to 20%. A linear relationship between stress and bandgap shifting in cobalt-doped ZnO nanorods was obtained based on x-ray diffraction and direct stress measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]