Chilton County area

Population and density of Chilton County

The Census Bureau estimates that 47,708 people lived in Chilton County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,057 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #29 of 67 in Alabama. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 45,006, the population has grown by 2,702 (+6%), compared with +3.3% for Alabama as a whole.

With 692.8 square miles of land, that is 69 people per square mile (27 per km²), placing Chilton County #1,270 nationally for density and #28 in Alabama. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alabama median is 49. Put another way, there are about 9.3 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Chilton County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Chilton County. Together they are home to 15,269 people (32%); the other 32,439 (68%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Clanton city, with 9,289 residents in the county. By land, Calera city is the largest at 24.4 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Jemison city grew fastest since then (+15.3%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Chilton County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Chilton County is an outlying county of the Birmingham, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 7 county equivalents have 1,197,766 residents on 5,279.9 square miles of land; Chilton County accounts for 13.1% of the land and 4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #46 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #49 by population. It belongs to the Birmingham-Cullman-Talladega, AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

14 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Chilton County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3504035045350463508535115351713600636051360913675036758367903679236793

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Chilton County

Chilton County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Dallas County (978.7 mi²) and the smallest is Autauga County (594.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Chilton County forms a block of 5,663.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.2%.

How big is Chilton County compared with U.S. states?

Chilton County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. Alabama’s county land could hold about 73 areas the size of Chilton County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.3 miles (42.4 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Chilton County?

Chilton County has more land than 1,871 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Chilton County at #1,437 nationally by total area, 86 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 1.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2%. The two percentages are within 0.1 percentage points of each other. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Chilton County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.