Independence County area

Population and density of Independence County

The Census Bureau estimates that 38,785 people lived in Independence County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,238 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 75 in Arkansas. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 37,932, the population has grown by 853 (+2.2%), compared with +3.4% for Arkansas as a whole.

With 763.7 square miles of land, that is 51 people per square mile (20 per km²), placing Independence County #1,531 nationally for density and #20 in Arkansas. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Arkansas median is 28. Put another way, there are about 13 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 Independence County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Independence County. Together they are home to 19,522 people (50.3%); the other 19,263 (49.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Batesville city, with 11,860 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Batesville city grew fastest since then (+5.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Independence County is a central county of the Batesville, AR Micropolitan Statistical Area. Independence County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 763.7 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #282 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #338 by population.

ZIP codes

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

7202072081721127216572501725217252272523725247252672527725347255072553725627256472568725717257272579

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 Independence County

Independence County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is White County (1,034 mi²) and the smallest is Cleburne County (554 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Independence County forms a block of 5,364.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.2%.

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

Independence 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. Arkansas’s county land could hold about 68 areas the size of Independence County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.6 miles (44.5 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 Independence County?

Independence County has more land than 2,080 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 Independence County at #1,238 nationally by total area, 96 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 Independence 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.