Tippecanoe County area

Population and density of Tippecanoe County

The Census Bureau estimates that 190,456 people lived in Tippecanoe County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #374 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #8 of 92 in Indiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 186,255, the population has grown by 4,201 (+2.3%), compared with +2.8% for Indiana as a whole.

With 498.9 square miles of land, that is 382 people per square mile (147 per km²), placing Tippecanoe County #423 nationally for density and #12 in Indiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Indiana median is 88. Put another way, there are about 1.7 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 Tippecanoe County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Tippecanoe County. Together they are home to 123,048 people (64.6%); the other 67,408 (35.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Lafayette city, with 71,238 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Shadeland town grew fastest since then (+4.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Tippecanoe County is a central county of the Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 228,468 residents on 1,642.2 square miles of land; Tippecanoe County accounts for 30.4% of the land and 83.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #196 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #214 by population. It belongs to the Lafayette-West Lafayette-Frankfort, IN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

19 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Tippecanoe County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

46058469234790147904479054790647907479094791847920479244793047941479554796747970479814798347992

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 Tippecanoe County

Tippecanoe County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is White County (505.2 mi²) and the smallest is Warren County (364.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Tippecanoe County forms a block of 3,452.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.4%.

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

Tippecanoe County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.1 times as much. Indiana’s county land could hold about 72 areas the size of Tippecanoe County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.3 miles (35.9 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 Tippecanoe County?

Tippecanoe County has more land than 1,135 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 Tippecanoe County at #2,168 nationally by total area, 81 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 0.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Tippecanoe 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.