Ben Hill County area

Population and density of Ben Hill County

The Census Bureau estimates that 17,099 people lived in Ben Hill County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,035 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #104 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 17,192, the population has declined by 93 (−0.5%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 250.1 square miles of land, that is 68 people per square mile (26 per km²), placing Ben Hill County #1,275 nationally for density and #81 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 9.4 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 Ben Hill County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Ben Hill County. Together they are home to 8,882 people (51.9%); the other 8,217 (48.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Fitzgerald city, with 8,882 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county).

Metropolitan area

Ben Hill County is a central county of the Fitzgerald, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Ben Hill County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 250.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #530 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #531 by population.

ZIP codes

4 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Ben Hill County; 1 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

31079317503178331798

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 Ben Hill County

Ben Hill County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Ben Hill County. The largest neighbor is Coffee County (592.3 mi²) and the smallest is Turner County (285.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Ben Hill County forms a block of 2,297.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.9%.

How big is Ben Hill County compared with U.S. states?

Ben Hill County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.1 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 231 areas the size of Ben Hill County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 15.8 miles (25.5 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 Ben Hill County?

Ben Hill County has more land than 310 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 Ben Hill County at #2,940 nationally by total area, 28 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 1.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Ben Hill 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.