Morgan County area

Population and density of Morgan County

The Census Bureau estimates that 32,515 people lived in Morgan County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,420 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #45 of 102 in Illinois. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 33,567, the population has declined by 1,052 (−3.1%), compared with −0.8% for Illinois as a whole.

With 569 square miles of land, that is 57 people per square mile (22 per km²), placing Morgan County #1,433 nationally for density and #42 in Illinois. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Illinois median is 44. Put another way, there are about 11 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 Morgan County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Morgan County. Together they are home to 25,200 people (77.5%); the other 7,315 (22.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Jacksonville city, with 17,752 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Morgan County is a central county of the Jacksonville, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 37,381 residents on 819.7 square miles of land; Morgan County accounts for 69.4% of the land and 87% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #256 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #360 by population. It belongs to the Springfield-Jacksonville-Lincoln, IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Morgan County; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

62082626016261162612626216262862631626386265062665626676266862670626926269462695

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 Morgan County

Morgan County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Sangamon County (868.2 mi²) and the smallest is Scott County (250.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Morgan County forms a block of 4,607 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.4%.

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

Morgan 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 98 areas the size of Morgan County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.9 miles (38.4 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 Morgan County?

Morgan County has more land than 1,430 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 Morgan County at #1,906 nationally by total area, 114 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 0.6%, 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 Morgan 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.