Gilchrist County area

Population and density of Gilchrist County

The Census Bureau estimates that 20,488 people lived in Gilchrist County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,861 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #55 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 17,860, the population has grown by 2,628 (+14.7%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 349.7 square miles of land, that is 59 people per square mile (23 per km²), placing Gilchrist County #1,405 nationally for density and #47 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 11 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 Gilchrist County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Gilchrist County. Together they are home to 3,420 people (16.7%); the other 17,068 (83.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Trenton city, with 2,296 residents in the county. By land, Fanning Springs city is the largest at 4.869 mi² across all its counties.

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

Metropolitan area

Gilchrist County is an outlying county of the Gainesville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 359,036 residents on 2,343.6 square miles of land; Gilchrist County accounts for 14.9% of the land and 5.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #140 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #158 by population. It belongs to the Gainesville-Lake City, FL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Gilchrist County; 2 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3200832619326433266932693

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 Gilchrist County

Gilchrist County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Gilchrist County. The largest neighbor is Levy County (1,118.3 mi²) and the smallest is Lafayette County (543.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Gilchrist County forms a block of 5,078 mi² of land, of which it holds 6.9%.

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

Gilchrist County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3 times as much. Florida’s county land could hold about 153 areas the size of Gilchrist County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 18.7 miles (30.1 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 Gilchrist County?

Gilchrist County has more land than 541 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 Gilchrist County at #2,720 nationally by total area, 39 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 1.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 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 Gilchrist 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.