Jessamine County area

Population and density of Jessamine County

The Census Bureau estimates that 57,147 people lived in Jessamine County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #941 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #17 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 52,999, the population has grown by 4,148 (+7.8%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 172.1 square miles of land, that is 332 people per square mile (128 per km²), placing Jessamine County #469 nationally for density and #7 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 1.9 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 Jessamine County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Jessamine County. Together they are home to 40,342 people (70.6%); the other 16,805 (29.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Nicholasville city, with 33,857 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Nicholasville city grew fastest since then (+8.8%).

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

Metropolitan area

Jessamine County is an outlying county of the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 6 county equivalents have 535,174 residents on 1,470 square miles of land; Jessamine County accounts for 11.7% of the land and 10.7% 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

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Jessamine County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4033940356403834039040515

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 Jessamine County

Jessamine County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Jessamine County. The largest neighbor is Madison County (437.9 mi²) and the smallest is Woodford County (189.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Jessamine County forms a block of 1,562.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 11%.

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

Jessamine County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 229 areas the size of Jessamine County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 13.1 miles (21.1 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 Jessamine County?

Jessamine County has more land than 183 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 Jessamine County at #3,059 nationally by total area, 20 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 1.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Jessamine 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.