Catoosa County area

Population and density of Catoosa County

The Census Bureau estimates that 69,628 people lived in Catoosa County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #807 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #39 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 67,879, the population has grown by 1,749 (+2.6%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 162.2 square miles of land, that is 429 people per square mile (166 per km²), placing Catoosa County #388 nationally for density and #23 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 1.5 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 Catoosa County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Catoosa County. Together they are home to 13,887 people (19.9%); the other 55,741 (80.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Fort Oglethorpe city, with 10,496 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Ringgold city, has 3,391 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Fort Oglethorpe city grew fastest since then (+5.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Catoosa County is a central county of the Chattanooga, TN-GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 6 county equivalents have 594,530 residents on 2,088.8 square miles of land; Catoosa County accounts for 7.8% of the land and 11.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #152 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #100 by population. It belongs to the Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton, TN-GA-AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Catoosa County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3070730710307263073630739307413074230755

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 Catoosa County

Catoosa County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents, including 1 in Tennessee. Each of them has more land than Catoosa County. The largest neighbor is Hamilton County (542.2 mi²) and the smallest is Whitfield County (290.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Catoosa County forms a block of 1,441.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.3%.

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

Catoosa County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6.4 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 356 areas the size of Catoosa County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 12.7 miles (20.5 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 Catoosa County?

Catoosa County has more land than 175 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 Catoosa County at #3,071 nationally by total area, 24 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 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 percentage points lower. 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 Catoosa 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.