Pope County area

Population and density of Pope County

The Census Bureau estimates that 64,976 people lived in Pope County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #857 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #11 of 75 in Arkansas. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 63,388, the population has grown by 1,588 (+2.5%), compared with +3.4% for Arkansas as a whole.

With 811 square miles of land, that is 80 people per square mile (31 per km²), placing Pope County #1,157 nationally for density and #12 in Arkansas. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Arkansas median is 28. Put another way, there are about 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 Pope County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Pope County. Together they are home to 38,576 people (59.4%); the other 26,400 (40.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Russellville city, with 29,521 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Pottsville city grew fastest since then (+6.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Pope County is a central county of the Russellville, AR Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 84,932 residents on 1,741.3 square miles of land; Pope County accounts for 46.6% of the land and 76.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #91 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #60 by population.

ZIP codes

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

7206372080726797268672801728027282372837728397284372846728477285672858

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 Pope County

Pope County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Yell County (930.4 mi²) and the smallest is Conway County (552 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Pope County forms a block of 5,859.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.8%.

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

Pope County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.3 times as much. Arkansas’s county land could hold about 64 areas the size of Pope County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 28.5 miles (45.8 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 Pope County?

Pope County has more land than 2,176 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 Pope County at #1,117 nationally by total area, 71 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 2.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.2 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 Pope 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.