Talladega County area

Population and density of Talladega County

The Census Bureau estimates that 81,603 people lived in Talladega County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #727 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #19 of 67 in Alabama. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 82,137, the population has declined by 534 (−0.7%), compared with +3.3% for Alabama as a whole.

With 736.8 square miles of land, that is 111 people per square mile (43 per km²), placing Talladega County #926 nationally for density and #19 in Alabama. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alabama median is 49. Put another way, there are about 5.8 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 Talladega County

11 incorporated places lie at least partly in Talladega County. Together they are home to 46,586 people (57.1%); the other 35,017 (42.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Talladega city, with 14,840 residents in the county. By land, Oxford city is the largest at 32 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Lincoln city grew fastest since then (+18.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Talladega County is a central county of the Talladega-Sylacauga, AL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 91,764 residents on 1,387.7 square miles of land; Talladega County accounts for 53.1% of the land and 88.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #123 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #48 by population. It belongs to the Birmingham-Cullman-Talladega, AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

350143503235044350723509635149351503515135160362033626036268

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 Talladega County

Talladega County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Shelby County (785.5 mi²) and the smallest is Cleburne County (560.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Talladega County forms a block of 4,574.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.1%.

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

Talladega County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. Alabama’s county land could hold about 69 areas the size of Talladega County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.1 miles (43.7 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 Talladega County?

Talladega County has more land than 2,021 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 Talladega County at #1,265 nationally by total area, 64 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 3.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.9 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 Talladega 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.