Limestone County area

Population and density of Limestone County

The Census Bureau estimates that 122,928 people lived in Limestone County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #534 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #10 of 67 in Alabama. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 103,563, the population has grown by 19,365 (+18.7%), compared with +3.3% for Alabama as a whole.

With 563.4 square miles of land, that is 218 people per square mile (84 per km²), placing Limestone County #614 nationally for density and #8 in Alabama. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alabama median is 49. Put another way, there are about 2.9 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 Limestone County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Limestone County. Together they are home to 56,030 people (45.6%); the other 66,898 (54.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Athens city, with 34,209 residents in the county. By land, Huntsville city is the largest at 230.1 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Athens city grew fastest since then (+34.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Limestone County is a central county of the Huntsville, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 556,444 residents on 1,365.1 square miles of land; Limestone County accounts for 41.3% of the land and 22.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #234 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #108 by population. It belongs to the Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville, AL-TN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

356103561135613356143561535620356473564935652356713573935749357563575735773

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 Limestone County

Limestone County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Tennessee. Each of them has more land than Limestone County. The largest neighbor is Madison County (801.7 mi²) and the smallest is Lincoln County (570.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Limestone County forms a block of 4,484.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.6%.

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

Limestone 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 90 areas the size of Limestone County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.7 miles (38.2 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 Limestone County?

Limestone County has more land than 1,392 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 Limestone County at #1,717 nationally by total area, 113 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 7.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 6 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 Limestone 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.