Houston County area

Population and density of Houston County

The Census Bureau estimates that 110,318 people lived in Houston County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #583 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #12 of 67 in Alabama. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 107,204, the population has grown by 3,114 (+2.9%), compared with +3.3% for Alabama as a whole.

With 579.8 square miles of land, that is 190 people per square mile (73 per km²), placing Houston County #659 nationally for density and #11 in Alabama. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alabama median is 49. Put another way, there are about 3.4 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 Houston County

12 incorporated places lie at least partly in Houston County. Together they are home to 86,067 people (78%); the other 24,251 (22%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Dothan city, with 70,465 residents in the county (the city extends into 2 other counties). Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Rehobeth town grew fastest since then (+23.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Houston County is a central county of the Dothan, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 156,266 residents on 1,716.2 square miles of land; Houston County accounts for 33.8% of the land and 70.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #185 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #288 by population. It belongs to the Dothan-Enterprise-Ozark, AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

14 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Houston County; 10 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3630136303363053631236319363203632136343363453635036352363703637536376

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 Houston County

Houston County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 3 in Florida and Georgia. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Jackson County (918.3 mi²) and the smallest is Seminole County (237.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Houston County forms a block of 3,945.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.7%.

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

Houston County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.8 times as much. Alabama’s county land could hold about 87 areas the size of Houston County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.1 miles (38.8 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 Houston County?

Houston County has more land than 1,521 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 Houston County at #1,822 nationally by total area, 121 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 percentage points lower. 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 Houston 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.