Tift County area

Population and density of Tift County

The Census Bureau estimates that 42,254 people lived in Tift County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,168 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #51 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 41,352, the population has grown by 902 (+2.2%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 260.9 square miles of land, that is 162 people per square mile (63 per km²), placing Tift County #738 nationally for density and #42 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 4 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 Tift County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Tift County. Together they are home to 19,552 people (46.3%); the other 22,702 (53.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Tifton city, with 17,595 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Tifton city grew fastest since then (+3.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Tift County is a central county of the Tifton, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 51,237 residents on 546.3 square miles of land; Tift County accounts for 47.8% of the land and 82.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #406 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #216 by population.

ZIP codes

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

31637317143172731733317493177531790317933179431795

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 Tift County

Tift County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Worth County (570.7 mi²) and the smallest is Cook County (228.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Tift County forms a block of 2,700.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 9.7%.

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

Tift County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 221 areas the size of Tift County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 16.2 miles (26 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 Tift County?

Tift County has more land than 337 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 Tift County at #2,903 nationally by total area, 18 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 2.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.8 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 Tift 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.