Stephens County area

Population and density of Stephens County

The Census Bureau estimates that 27,854 people lived in Stephens County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,559 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #72 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 26,780, the population has grown by 1,074 (+4%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 178.9 square miles of land, that is 156 people per square mile (60 per km²), placing Stephens County #755 nationally for density and #45 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 Stephens County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Stephens County. Together they are home to 10,134 people (36.4%); the other 17,720 (63.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Toccoa city, with 9,539 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Stephens County is a central county of the Toccoa, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Stephens County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 178.9 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #535 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #457 by population.

ZIP codes

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

305113053830557305633057730598

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 Stephens County

Stephens County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 1 in South Carolina. Each of them has more land than Stephens County. The largest neighbor is Oconee County (626.6 mi²) and the smallest is Banks County (232.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Stephens County forms a block of 1,576.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.3%.

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

Stephens County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 5.8 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 323 areas the size of Stephens County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 13.4 miles (21.5 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 Stephens County?

Stephens County has more land than 191 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 Stephens County at #3,048 nationally by total area, 17 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 2.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.6 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 Stephens 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.