Effingham County area

Population and density of Effingham County

The Census Bureau estimates that 74,397 people lived in Effingham County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #765 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #34 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 64,789, the population has grown by 9,608 (+14.8%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 478.9 square miles of land, that is 155 people per square mile (60 per km²), placing Effingham County #759 nationally for density and #46 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 4.1 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 Effingham County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Effingham County. Together they are home to 18,317 people (24.6%); the other 56,080 (75.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Rincon city, with 11,726 residents in the county. The county seat, Springfield city, has 3,344 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Guyton city grew fastest since then (+40%).

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

Metropolitan area

Effingham County is an outlying county of the Savannah, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 438,314 residents on 1,349.2 square miles of land; Effingham County accounts for 35.5% of the land and 17% 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

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Effingham County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3044631302313033130731312313183132631329

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 Effingham County

Effingham County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in South Carolina. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Bulloch County (676 mi²) and the smallest is Chatham County (432.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Effingham County forms a block of 3,886.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.3%.

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

Effingham County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.2 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 121 areas the size of Effingham County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.9 miles (35.2 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 Effingham County?

Effingham County has more land than 1,064 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 Effingham County at #2,236 nationally by total area, 78 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 0.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Effingham 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.