Anderson County area

Population and density of Anderson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 25,225 people lived in Anderson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,664 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #46 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 23,880, the population has grown by 1,345 (+5.6%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 202.3 square miles of land, that is 125 people per square mile (48 per km²), placing Anderson County #855 nationally for density and #23 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 5.1 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 Anderson County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Anderson County. Together they are home to 12,329 people (48.9%); the other 12,896 (51.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Lawrenceburg city, with 12,329 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Anderson County is an outlying county of the Frankfort, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 77,874 residents on 410.2 square miles of land; Anderson County accounts for 49.3% of the land and 32.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #479 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #82 by population. It belongs to the Lexington-Fayette--Richmond--Frankfort, KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Anderson County; 1 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4001240046400764034240372

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 Anderson County

Anderson County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Nelson County (418.7 mi²) and the smallest is Spencer County (186.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Anderson County forms a block of 2,131.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 9.5%.

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

Anderson County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 5.1 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 195 areas the size of Anderson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 14.2 miles (22.9 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 Anderson County?

Anderson County has more land than 229 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 Anderson County at #3,014 nationally by total area, 21 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 1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Anderson 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.