Greenup County area

Population and density of Greenup County

The Census Bureau estimates that 35,213 people lived in Greenup County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,338 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #30 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 35,966, the population has declined by 753 (−2.1%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 344.5 square miles of land, that is 102 people per square mile (39 per km²), placing Greenup County #973 nationally for density and #29 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 6.3 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 Greenup County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Greenup County. Together they are home to 18,769 people (53.3%); the other 16,444 (46.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Flatwoods city, with 7,439 residents in the county. The county seat, Greenup city, has 1,069 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Greenup County is a central county of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 8 county equivalents have 365,965 residents on 2,915.5 square miles of land; Greenup County accounts for 11.8% of the land and 9.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #102 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #156 by population. It belongs to the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Greenup County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4110141102411214113941141411434114441169411744117541183

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 Greenup County

Greenup County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in Ohio. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Scioto County (610.2 mi²) and the smallest is Boyd County (159.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Greenup County forms a block of 2,460.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 14%.

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

Greenup 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 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 115 areas the size of Greenup County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 18.6 miles (29.9 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 Greenup County?

Greenup County has more land than 526 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 Greenup County at #2,723 nationally by total area, 27 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 2.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.6 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 Greenup 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.