Graves County area

Population and density of Graves County

The Census Bureau estimates that 37,050 people lived in Graves County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,294 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #29 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 36,654, the population has grown by 396 (+1.1%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 551.8 square miles of land, that is 67 people per square mile (26 per km²), placing Graves County #1,290 nationally for density and #54 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 9.5 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 Graves County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Graves County. Together they are home to 10,435 people (28.2%); the other 26,615 (71.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Mayfield city, with 9,851 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Graves County is a central county of the Mayfield, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Graves County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 551.8 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #402 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #364 by population. It belongs to the Paducah-Mayfield, KY-IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

18 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Graves County; 10 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

420034202542027420354203942040420414204942051420544206142066420694207142079420824208542088

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 Graves County

Graves County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 2 in Tennessee. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Weakley County (580.4 mi²) and the smallest is Carlisle County (189.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Graves County forms a block of 3,061.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 18%.

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

Graves County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 72 areas the size of Graves County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.5 miles (37.8 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 Graves County?

Graves County has more land than 1,328 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 Graves County at #1,984 nationally by total area, 90 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 0.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Graves 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.