Putnam County area

Population and density of Putnam County

The Census Bureau estimates that 37,876 people lived in Putnam County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,271 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #40 of 92 in Indiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 36,735, the population has grown by 1,141 (+3.1%), compared with +2.8% for Indiana as a whole.

With 480.5 square miles of land, that is 79 people per square mile (30 per km²), placing Putnam County #1,171 nationally for density and #50 in Indiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Indiana median is 88. Put another way, there are about 8.1 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 Putnam County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Putnam County. Together they are home to 14,536 people (38.4%); the other 23,340 (61.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Greencastle city, with 9,924 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Cloverdale town grew fastest since then (+5.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Putnam County is a central county of the Greencastle, IN Micropolitan Statistical Area. Putnam County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 480.5 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #444 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #353 by population. It belongs to the Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Putnam County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

46105461204612146128461354616546170461714617246175474564784047868478724795447989

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 Putnam County

Putnam County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Montgomery County (504.6 mi²) and the smallest is Clay County (357.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Putnam County forms a block of 2,983.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.1%.

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

Putnam County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.2 times as much. Indiana’s county land could hold about 75 areas the size of Putnam County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.9 miles (35.3 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 Putnam County?

Putnam County has more land than 1,068 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 Putnam County at #2,239 nationally by total area, 85 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Putnam 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.