Monroe County area

Population and density of Monroe County

The Census Bureau estimates that 143,345 people lived in Monroe County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #480 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #12 of 92 in Indiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 140,769, the population has grown by 2,576 (+1.8%), compared with +2.8% for Indiana as a whole.

With 394.5 square miles of land, that is 363 people per square mile (140 per km²), placing Monroe County #444 nationally for density and #13 in Indiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Indiana median is 88. Put another way, there are about 1.8 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 Monroe County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Monroe County. Together they are home to 90,344 people (63%); the other 53,001 (37%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bloomington city, with 83,307 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Bloomington city grew fastest since then (+3.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Monroe County is a central county of the Bloomington, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 165,231 residents on 779.8 square miles of land; Monroe County accounts for 50.6% of the land and 86.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #309 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #271 by population. It belongs to the Bloomington-Bedford, IN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

19 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Monroe County; 11 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

46151472644740147403474044740547406474084742147429474334743447436474484745847460474624746447468

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 Monroe County

Monroe County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Greene County (542.5 mi²) and the smallest is Brown County (312 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Monroe County forms a block of 2,997.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.2%.

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

Monroe County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.6 times as much. Indiana’s county land could hold about 91 areas the size of Monroe County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 19.9 miles (32 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 Monroe County?

Monroe County has more land than 670 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 Monroe County at #2,533 nationally by total area, 19 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 4.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.9 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 Monroe 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.