Oglethorpe County area

Population and density of Oglethorpe County

The Census Bureau estimates that 16,415 people lived in Oglethorpe County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,078 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #105 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 14,827, the population has grown by 1,588 (+10.7%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 439.1 square miles of land, that is 37 people per square mile (14 per km²), placing Oglethorpe County #1,819 nationally for density and #114 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 17 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 Oglethorpe County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Oglethorpe County. Together they are home to 1,806 people (11%); the other 14,609 (89%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Crawford city, with 918 residents in the county. The county seat, Lexington city, has 218 residents. By land, Maxeys town is the largest at 2.381 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Oglethorpe County is an outlying county of the Athens-Clarke County, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 224,148 residents on 1,025 square miles of land; Oglethorpe County accounts for 42.8% of the land and 7.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #277 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #219 by population. It belongs to the Atlanta--Athens-Clarke County--Sandy Springs, GA-AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

30619306273062830629306303064830660306673066930683

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 Oglethorpe County

Oglethorpe County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Wilkes County (469.5 mi²) and the smallest is Clarke County (119.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Oglethorpe County forms a block of 2,427.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.1%.

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

Oglethorpe 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 131 areas the size of Oglethorpe County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21 miles (33.7 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 Oglethorpe County?

Oglethorpe County has more land than 914 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 Oglethorpe County at #2,381 nationally by total area, 73 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 0.7%, 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 Oglethorpe 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.