Franklin County area

Population and density of Franklin County

The Census Bureau estimates that 52,649 people lived in Franklin County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #991 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #19 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 51,541, the population has grown by 1,108 (+2.1%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 207.9 square miles of land, that is 253 people per square mile (98 per km²), placing Franklin County #568 nationally for density and #12 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 2.5 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 Franklin County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Franklin County. Together they are home to 28,657 people (54.4%); the other 23,992 (45.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Frankfort city, with 28,657 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Franklin County is a central county of the Frankfort, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 77,874 residents on 410.2 square miles of land; Franklin County accounts for 50.7% of the land and 67.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #479 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #82 by population. It belongs to the Lexington-Fayette--Richmond--Frankfort, KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Franklin County; 1 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4000340076403474037940601

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 Franklin County

Franklin County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Shelby County (379.8 mi²) and the smallest is Woodford County (189.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Franklin County forms a block of 1,898.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 11%.

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

Franklin 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 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 190 areas the size of Franklin County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 14.4 miles (23.2 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 Franklin County?

Franklin County has more land than 234 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 Franklin County at #3,004 nationally by total area, 16 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 1.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Franklin 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.