Bracken County area

Population and density of Bracken County

The Census Bureau estimates that 8,511 people lived in Bracken County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,610 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #108 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 8,400, the population has grown by 111 (+1.3%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 202.7 square miles of land, that is 42 people per square mile (16 per km²), placing Bracken County #1,709 nationally for density and #81 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 15 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 Bracken County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Bracken County. Together they are home to 1,847 people (21.7%); the other 6,664 (78.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Augusta city, with 1,099 residents in the county. The county seat, Brooksville city, has 656 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Bracken County is an outlying county of the Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 15 county equivalents have 2,312,858 residents on 4,385.2 square miles of land; Bracken County accounts for 4.6% of the land and 0.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #60 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #30 by population. It belongs to the Cincinnati-Wilmington, OH-KY-IN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

41002410044103441040410434104441064

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 Bracken County

Bracken County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Ohio. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Brown County (489.6 mi²) and the smallest is Robertson County (99.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Bracken County forms a block of 2,068.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 9.8%.

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

Bracken 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 Bracken 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 Bracken County?

Bracken County has more land than 230 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 Bracken County at #3,010 nationally by total area, 18 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 3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.8 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 Bracken 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.