Livingston County area

Population and density of Livingston County

The Census Bureau estimates that 35,057 people lived in Livingston County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,341 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #39 of 102 in Illinois. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 35,840, the population has declined by 783 (−2.2%), compared with −0.8% for Illinois as a whole.

With 1,043.6 square miles of land, that is 34 people per square mile (13 per km²), placing Livingston County #1,904 nationally for density and #69 in Illinois. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Illinois median is 44. Put another way, there are about 19 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 Livingston County

16 incorporated places lie at least partly in Livingston County. Together they are home to 24,522 people (69.9%); the other 10,535 (30.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Pontiac city, with 10,806 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Livingston County is a central county of the Pontiac, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Livingston County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 1,043.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #169 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #390 by population. It belongs to the Bloomington-Pontiac, IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

29 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Livingston County; 17 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

6042060460604706091760919609206092160929609346094660952609596096160968613116131361319613336136461726617316173961740617416174361744617646176961775

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 Livingston County

Livingston County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is McLean County (1,183.2 mi²) and the smallest is Grundy County (418.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Livingston County forms a block of 5,469.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.1%.

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

Livingston County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.9 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Illinois’s county land could hold about 53 areas the size of Livingston County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 32.3 miles (52 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 Livingston County?

Livingston County has more land than 2,594 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 Livingston County at #725 nationally by total area, 97 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 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 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 Livingston 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.