Pickens County area

Population and density of Pickens County

The Census Bureau estimates that 18,221 people lived in Pickens County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,983 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #49 of 67 in Alabama. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 19,127, the population has declined by 906 (−4.7%), compared with +3.3% for Alabama as a whole.

With 881.4 square miles of land, that is 21 people per square mile (8 per km²), placing Pickens County #2,300 nationally for density and #54 in Alabama. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alabama median is 49. Put another way, there are about 31 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 Pickens County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Pickens County. Together they are home to 6,624 people (36.4%); the other 11,597 (63.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Aliceville city, with 2,024 residents in the county. The county seat, Carrollton town, has 966 residents. By land, Reform town is the largest at 8.008 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Pickens County is an outlying county of the Tuscaloosa, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 281,850 residents on 3,493.3 square miles of land; Pickens County accounts for 25.2% of the land and 6.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #83 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #181 by population.

ZIP codes

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

3544235447354613546635481355553557435576

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 Pickens County

Pickens County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 2 in Mississippi. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Tuscaloosa County (1,320.9 mi²) and the smallest is Lowndes County (506.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Pickens County forms a block of 6,187 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.2%.

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

Pickens County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.2 times as much. Alabama’s county land could hold about 57 areas the size of Pickens County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 29.7 miles (47.8 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 Pickens County?

Pickens County has more land than 2,316 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 Pickens County at #1,008 nationally by total area, 102 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Pickens 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.