Bourbon County area

Population and density of Bourbon County

The Census Bureau estimates that 20,243 people lived in Bourbon County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,871 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #57 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 20,254, the population has declined by 11 (−0.1%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 289.8 square miles of land, that is 70 people per square mile (27 per km²), placing Bourbon County #1,261 nationally for density and #52 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. 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 Bourbon County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Bourbon County. Together they are home to 11,466 people (56.6%); the other 8,777 (43.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Paris city, with 10,130 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Bourbon County is an outlying county of the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 6 county equivalents have 535,174 residents on 1,470 square miles of land; Bourbon County accounts for 19.7% of the land and 3.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #222 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #110 by population. It belongs to the Lexington-Fayette--Richmond--Frankfort, KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Bourbon County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

40311403244034840353403574036140374405114051641031

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 Bourbon County

Bourbon County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Harrison County (306.5 mi²) and the smallest is Nicholas County (195.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Bourbon County forms a block of 1,807.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 16%.

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

Bourbon County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.6 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 136 areas the size of Bourbon County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17 miles (27.4 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 Bourbon County?

Bourbon County has more land than 398 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 Bourbon County at #2,856 nationally by total area, 32 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 0.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 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 Bourbon 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.