Chatham County area

Population and density of Chatham County

The Census Bureau estimates that 311,855 people lived in Chatham County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #239 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 295,261, the population has grown by 16,594 (+5.6%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 432.8 square miles of land, that is 721 people per square mile (278 per km²), placing Chatham County #254 nationally for density and #12 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 0.888 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 Chatham County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Chatham County. Together they are home to 219,209 people (70.3%); the other 92,646 (29.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Savannah city, with 149,440 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Port Wentworth city grew fastest since then (+61.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Chatham County is a central county of the Savannah, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 438,314 residents on 1,349.2 square miles of land; Chatham County accounts for 32.1% of the land and 71.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #238 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #127 by population. It belongs to the Savannah-Hinesville-Statesboro, GA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

313023132231328314013140431405314063140731408314093141031411314153141931421

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 Chatham County

Chatham County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents, including 1 in South Carolina. Each of them has more land than Chatham County. The largest neighbor is Jasper County (655.2 mi²) and the smallest is Bryan County (437.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Chatham County forms a block of 2,004.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 21.6%.

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

Chatham County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.4 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 133 areas the size of Chatham County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.8 miles (33.5 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 Chatham County?

Chatham County has more land than 878 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 Chatham County at #1,643 nationally by total area, 701 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 31.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 30.1 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 Chatham 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.