Carlisle County area

Population and density of Carlisle County

The Census Bureau estimates that 4,747 people lived in Carlisle County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,911 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #117 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 4,820, the population has declined by 73 (−1.5%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 189.5 square miles of land, that is 25 people per square mile (9.7 per km²), placing Carlisle County #2,144 nationally for density and #114 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 26 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 Carlisle County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Carlisle County. Together they are home to 969 people (20.4%); the other 3,778 (79.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bardwell city, with 713 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Carlisle 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; Carlisle County accounts for 15.3% of the land and 4.6% 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

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

42021420234203542039

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 Carlisle County

Carlisle County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 1 in Missouri. Each of them has more land than Carlisle County. The largest neighbor is Graves County (551.8 mi²) and the smallest is Hickman County (242.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Carlisle County forms a block of 1,891 mi² of land, of which it holds 10%.

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

Carlisle County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 5.5 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 208 areas the size of Carlisle County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 13.8 miles (22.2 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 Carlisle County?

Carlisle County has more land than 207 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 Carlisle County at #3,025 nationally by total area, 10 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 4.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 3.6 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 Carlisle 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.