Mississippi County area

Population and density of Mississippi County

The Census Bureau estimates that 37,828 people lived in Mississippi County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,275 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #20 of 75 in Arkansas. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 40,681, the population has declined by 2,853 (−7%), compared with +3.4% for Arkansas as a whole.

With 902.1 square miles of land, that is 42 people per square mile (16 per km²), placing Mississippi County #1,711 nationally for density and #23 in Arkansas. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Arkansas median is 28. Put another way, there are about 15 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 Mississippi County

17 incorporated places lie at least partly in Mississippi County. Together they are home to 30,842 people (81.5%); the other 6,986 (18.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Blytheville city, with 12,227 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Manila city grew fastest since then (+2.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Mississippi County is a central county of the Blytheville, AR Micropolitan Statistical Area. Mississippi County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 902.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #212 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #356 by population.

ZIP codes

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

7231372315723297233072338723507235172354723587237072386723917239572426724287243872442

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 Mississippi County

Mississippi County shares a land border with 9 county equivalents, including 6 in Tennessee and Missouri. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Poinsett County (758.3 mi²) and the smallest is Tipton County (455.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Mississippi County forms a block of 6,206.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.5%.

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

Mississippi County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.1 times as much. Arkansas’s county land could hold about 58 areas the size of Mississippi County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 30 miles (48.3 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 Mississippi County?

Mississippi County has more land than 2,380 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 Mississippi County at #883 nationally by total area, 41 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.8 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 Mississippi 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.