Russell County area

Population and density of Russell County

The Census Bureau estimates that 58,898 people lived in Russell County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #917 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #25 of 67 in Alabama. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 59,170, the population has declined by 272 (−0.5%), compared with +3.3% for Alabama as a whole.

With 641.2 square miles of land, that is 92 people per square mile (35 per km²), placing Russell County #1,053 nationally for density and #24 in Alabama. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alabama median is 49. Put another way, there are about 7 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 Russell County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Russell County. Together they are home to 31,935 people (54.2%); the other 26,963 (45.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Phenix City city, with 31,594 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county).

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

Metropolitan area

Russell County is a central county of the Columbus, GA-AL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 7 county equivalents have 324,830 residents on 2,786.1 square miles of land; Russell County accounts for 23% of the land and 18.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #108 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #164 by population. It belongs to the Columbus-Auburn-Opelika, GA-AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

36027368043685136856368583686036867368693687036871368743687536877

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 Russell County

Russell County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 3 in Georgia. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Barbour County (885 mi²) and the smallest is Muscogee County (216.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Russell County forms a block of 4,289.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.9%.

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

Russell County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. Alabama’s county land could hold about 79 areas the size of Russell County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.3 miles (40.8 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 Russell County?

Russell County has more land than 1,740 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 Russell County at #1,586 nationally by total area, 104 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 0.9%, 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 Russell 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.