Jackson County area

Population and density of Jackson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 52,501 people lived in Jackson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #993 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #27 of 102 in Illinois. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 53,347, the population has declined by 846 (−1.6%), compared with −0.8% for Illinois as a whole.

With 583.6 square miles of land, that is 90 people per square mile (35 per km²), placing Jackson County #1,075 nationally for density and #27 in Illinois. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Illinois median is 44. Put another way, there are about 7.1 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 Jackson County

11 incorporated places lie at least partly in Jackson County. Together they are home to 33,639 people (64.1%); the other 18,862 (35.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Carbondale city, with 21,811 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Murphysboro city, has 6,977 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Jackson County is a central county of the Carbondale, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Jackson County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 583.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #366 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #210 by population. It belongs to the Carbondale-Marion-Herrin, IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

22 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Jackson County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

62272622746228062832629016290262903629056290762916629186292062924629276293262940629426295062958629666297562994

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 Jackson County

Jackson County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 1 in Missouri. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Randolph County (575.4 mi²) and the smallest is Franklin County (408.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Jackson County forms a block of 3,317.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.6%.

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

Jackson County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.8 times as much. Illinois’s county land could hold about 95 areas the size of Jackson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.2 miles (38.9 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 Jackson County?

Jackson County has more land than 1,536 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 Jackson County at #1,736 nationally by total area, 50 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 3.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.9 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 Jackson 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.