Gadsden County area

Population and density of Gadsden County

The Census Bureau estimates that 44,298 people lived in Gadsden County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,132 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #46 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 43,823, the population has grown by 475 (+1.1%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 516.4 square miles of land, that is 86 people per square mile (33 per km²), placing Gadsden County #1,109 nationally for density and #42 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 7.5 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 Gadsden County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Gadsden County. Together they are home to 18,178 people (41%); the other 26,120 (59%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Quincy city, with 8,162 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Quincy city grew fastest since then (+1.8%).

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

Metropolitan area

Gadsden County is an outlying county of the Tallahassee, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 397,442 residents on 2,389.3 square miles of land; Gadsden County accounts for 21.6% of the land and 11.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #136 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #144 by population. It belongs to the Tallahassee-Bainbridge, FL-GA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Gadsden County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

32324323303233232333323433235132352

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Gadsden County

Gadsden County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in Georgia. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Jackson County (918.3 mi²) and the smallest is Grady County (454.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Gadsden County forms a block of 3,990.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.9%.

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

Gadsden County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2 times as much. Florida’s county land could hold about 104 areas the size of Gadsden County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.7 miles (36.6 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 Gadsden County?

Gadsden County has more land than 1,202 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 Gadsden County at #2,075 nationally by total area, 55 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 2.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 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 Gadsden 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.