Colbert County area

Population and density of Colbert County

The Census Bureau estimates that 59,474 people lived in Colbert County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #911 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #24 of 67 in Alabama. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 57,231, the population has grown by 2,243 (+3.9%), compared with +3.3% for Alabama as a whole.

With 593 square miles of land, that is 100 people per square mile (39 per km²), placing Colbert County #997 nationally for density and #21 in Alabama. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alabama median is 49. Put another way, there are about 6.4 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 Colbert County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Colbert County. Together they are home to 39,123 people (65.8%); the other 20,351 (34.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Muscle Shoals city, with 17,666 residents in the county. The county seat, Tuscumbia city, has 9,332 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Muscle Shoals city grew fastest since then (+8.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Colbert County is a central county of the Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 156,609 residents on 1,261 square miles of land; Colbert County accounts for 47% of the land and 38% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #249 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #287 by population. It belongs to the Florence-Muscle Shoals-Russellville, AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Colbert County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

356163564635653356543566035661356723567438852

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 Colbert County

Colbert County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 1 in Mississippi. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Lawrence County (690.7 mi²) and the smallest is Tishomingo County (424.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Colbert County forms a block of 3,009.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.7%.

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

Colbert County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.7 times as much. Alabama’s county land could hold about 85 areas the size of Colbert County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.4 miles (39.2 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 Colbert County?

Colbert County has more land than 1,573 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 Colbert County at #1,657 nationally by total area, 8 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 4.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 3.7 percentage points higher. 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 Colbert 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.