Estill County area

Population and density of Estill County

The Census Bureau estimates that 13,962 people lived in Estill County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,239 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #78 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 14,161, the population has declined by 199 (−1.4%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 253.1 square miles of land, that is 55 people per square mile (21 per km²), placing Estill County #1,457 nationally for density and #65 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 12 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 Estill County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Estill County. Together they are home to 2,828 people (20.3%); the other 11,134 (79.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Irvine city, with 2,273 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Estill County is an outlying county of the Richmond-Berea, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 131,806 residents on 1,007.6 square miles of land; Estill County accounts for 25.1% of the land and 10.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #179 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #12 by population. It belongs to the Lexington-Fayette--Richmond--Frankfort, KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Estill County; 2 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4031240336403804044740472

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 Estill County

Estill County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Madison County (437.9 mi²) and the smallest is Powell County (179 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Estill County forms a block of 1,676.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.1%.

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

Estill County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.1 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 156 areas the size of Estill County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 15.9 miles (25.6 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 Estill County?

Estill County has more land than 321 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 Estill County at #2,937 nationally by total area, 36 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 1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Estill 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.