Ballard County area

Population and density of Ballard County

The Census Bureau estimates that 7,594 people lived in Ballard County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,679 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #110 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 7,730, the population has declined by 136 (−1.8%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 247.1 square miles of land, that is 31 people per square mile (12 per km²), placing Ballard County #1,983 nationally for density and #107 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 21 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 Ballard County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Ballard County. Together they are home to 2,789 people (36.7%); the other 4,805 (63.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is La Center city, with 858 residents in the county. The county seat, Wickliffe city, has 647 residents. By land, Wickliffe city is the largest at 1.552 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Ballard County is an outlying county of the Paducah, KY-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 102,259 residents on 1,235.5 square miles of land; Ballard County accounts for 20% of the land and 7.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #252 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #364 by population. It belongs to the Paducah-Mayfield, KY-IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

6 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Ballard County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

420224202442053420564206042087

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Ballard County

Ballard County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 3 in Illinois and Missouri. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Mississippi County (411.6 mi²) and the smallest is Carlisle County (189.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Ballard County forms a block of 1,531.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.1%.

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

Ballard County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.2 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 160 areas the size of Ballard County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 15.7 miles (25.3 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 Ballard County?

Ballard County has more land than 302 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 Ballard County at #2,900 nationally by total area, 20 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 9.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 8.6 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 Ballard 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.