Leon County area

Population and density of Leon County

The Census Bureau estimates that 299,048 people lived in Leon County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #249 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #23 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 292,205, the population has grown by 6,843 (+2.3%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 668.4 square miles of land, that is 447 people per square mile (173 per km²), placing Leon County #378 nationally for density and #21 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 1.4 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 Leon County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Leon County. Together they are home to 204,902 people (68.5%); the other 94,146 (31.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Tallahassee city, with 204,902 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Leon County is a central county of the Tallahassee, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 397,442 residents on 2,389.3 square miles of land; Leon County accounts for 28% of the land and 75.2% 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

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

3230132303323043230532306323073230832309323103231132312323133231732399

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 Leon County

Leon County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Georgia. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Liberty County (835.6 mi²) and the smallest is Grady County (454.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Leon County forms a block of 4,224 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.8%.

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

Leon County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. Florida’s county land could hold about 80 areas the size of Leon County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.9 miles (41.6 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 Leon County?

Leon County has more land than 1,814 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 Leon County at #1,433 nationally by total area, 25 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 4.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 3.6 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 Leon 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.