Macoupin County area

Population and density of Macoupin County

The Census Bureau estimates that 43,748 people lived in Macoupin County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,143 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #32 of 102 in Illinois. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 45,044, the population has declined by 1,296 (−2.9%), compared with −0.8% for Illinois as a whole.

With 863 square miles of land, that is 51 people per square mile (20 per km²), placing Macoupin County #1,536 nationally for density and #45 in Illinois. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Illinois median is 44. Put another way, there are about 13 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 Macoupin County

27 incorporated places lie at least partly in Macoupin County. Together they are home to 29,599 people (67.7%); the other 14,149 (32.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Carlinville city, with 5,465 residents in the county. By land, Staunton city is the largest at 4.008 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Macoupin County is an outlying county of the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 15 county equivalents have 2,814,421 residents on 7,863.5 square miles of land; Macoupin County accounts for 11% of the land and 1.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #19 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #23 by population. It belongs to the St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

28 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Macoupin County; 18 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

62002620096201262014620216202362033620446205662063620696207462079620856208862093625606257262626626306263862640626496266762672626746268562690

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 Macoupin County

Macoupin County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Sangamon County (868.2 mi²) and the smallest is Jersey County (369.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Macoupin County forms a block of 4,632.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.6%.

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

Macoupin County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.2 times as much. Illinois’s county land could hold about 64 areas the size of Macoupin County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 29.4 miles (47.3 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 Macoupin County?

Macoupin County has more land than 2,265 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 Macoupin County at #1,047 nationally by total area, 90 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 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Macoupin 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.