Marshall County area

Population and density of Marshall County

The Census Bureau estimates that 39,890 people lived in Marshall County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,213 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #15 of 99 in Iowa. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 40,107, the population has declined by 217 (−0.5%), compared with +1.5% for Iowa as a whole.

With 572.5 square miles of land, that is 70 people per square mile (27 per km²), placing Marshall County #1,264 nationally for density and #16 in Iowa. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Iowa median is 26. Put another way, there are about 9.2 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 Marshall County

13 incorporated places lie at least partly in Marshall County. Together they are home to 32,761 people (82.1%); the other 7,129 (17.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Marshalltown city, with 27,536 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Marshall County is a central county of the Marshalltown, IA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Marshall County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 572.5 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #373 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #322 by population.

ZIP codes

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

500055002850051500555007850106501205014150142501485015850162502065023450239502475025850609506215063250635

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 Marshall County

Marshall County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Jasper County (730.4 mi²) and the smallest is Grundy County (501.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Marshall County forms a block of 3,667.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.6%.

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

Marshall 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. Iowa’s county land could hold about 98 areas the size of Marshall County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.9 miles (38.5 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 Marshall County?

Marshall County has more land than 1,471 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 Marshall County at #1,898 nationally by total area, 147 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 0.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 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 Marshall 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.