Fayette County area

Population and density of Fayette County

The Census Bureau estimates that 329,751 people lived in Fayette County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #227 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #2 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 322,563, the population has grown by 7,188 (+2.2%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 283.9 square miles of land, that is 1,162 people per square mile (449 per km²), placing Fayette County #157 nationally for density and #2 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 0.551 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 Fayette County

Every resident of Fayette County lives within Lexington-Fayette urban county. The city and the county equivalent cover the same territory, 283.9 square miles of land in the 2026 place Gazetteer, so there are no separate towns or unincorporated areas to list.

Metropolitan area

Fayette County is a central county of the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 6 county equivalents have 535,174 residents on 1,470 square miles of land; Fayette County accounts for 19.3% of the land and 61.6% 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

19 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Fayette County; 16 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

40324403614039140502405034050440505405074050840509405104051140513405144051540516405174052640536

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 Fayette County

Fayette County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Madison County (437.9 mi²) and the smallest is Jessamine County (172.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Fayette County forms a block of 1,907.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.9%.

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

Fayette 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 139 areas the size of Fayette County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 16.8 miles (27.1 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 Fayette County?

Fayette County has more land than 385 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 Fayette County at #2,877 nationally by total area, 40 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% — 0.6 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 Fayette 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.