Barren County area

Population and density of Barren County

The Census Bureau estimates that 45,641 people lived in Barren County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,101 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #23 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 44,483, the population has grown by 1,158 (+2.6%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 487.4 square miles of land, that is 94 people per square mile (36 per km²), placing Barren County #1,040 nationally for density and #36 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 6.8 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 Barren County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Barren County. Together they are home to 18,329 people (40.2%); the other 27,312 (59.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Glasgow city, with 15,302 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Glasgow city grew fastest since then (+1.8%).

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

Metropolitan area

Barren County is a central county of the Glasgow, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 56,224 residents on 777 square miles of land; Barren County accounts for 62.7% of the land and 81.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #276 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #188 by population. It belongs to the Bowling Green-Glasgow-Franklin, KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Barren County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

421234212742130421314213342141421544215642160421664217142749

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 Barren County

Barren County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Warren County (541.7 mi²) and the smallest is Metcalfe County (289.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Barren County forms a block of 2,707.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 18%.

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

Barren 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. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 81 areas the size of Barren County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.1 miles (35.5 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 Barren County?

Barren County has more land than 1,088 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 Barren County at #2,183 nationally by total area, 49 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 2.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.4 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 Barren 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.