Murray County area

Population and density of Murray County

The Census Bureau estimates that 41,607 people lived in Murray County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,184 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #52 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 39,969, the population has grown by 1,638 (+4.1%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 344.5 square miles of land, that is 121 people per square mile (47 per km²), placing Murray County #873 nationally for density and #54 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 5.3 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 Murray County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Murray County. Together they are home to 5,879 people (14.1%); the other 35,728 (85.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Chatsworth city, with 5,029 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Murray County is an outlying county of the Dalton, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 147,819 residents on 634.9 square miles of land; Murray County accounts for 54.3% of the land and 28.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #333 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #299 by population. It belongs to the Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton, TN-GA-AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Murray County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

30705307083071130721307243073530751

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 Murray County

Murray County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Tennessee. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Polk County (434.6 mi²) and the smallest is Whitfield County (290.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Murray County forms a block of 2,568.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.4%.

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

Murray County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 168 areas the size of Murray County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 18.6 miles (29.9 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 Murray County?

Murray County has more land than 527 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 Murray County at #2,741 nationally by total area, 46 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 0.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 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 Murray 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.