Kenton County area

Population and density of Kenton County

The Census Bureau estimates that 175,779 people lived in Kenton County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #401 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 169,041, the population has grown by 6,738 (+4%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 160.4 square miles of land, that is 1,096 people per square mile (423 per km²), placing Kenton County #172 nationally for density and #3 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 0.584 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 Kenton County

20 incorporated places lie at least partly in Kenton County. Together they are home to 160,899 people (91.5%); the other 14,880 (8.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Covington city, with 41,847 residents in the county. By land, Independence city is the largest at 17.8 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Crescent Springs city grew fastest since then (+10.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Kenton County is a central county of the Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 15 county equivalents have 2,312,858 residents on 4,385.2 square miles of land; Kenton County accounts for 3.7% of the land and 7.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #60 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #30 by population. It belongs to the Cincinnati-Wilmington, OH-KY-IN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Kenton County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

410114101441015410164101741018410304103341042410514106341094

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 Kenton County

Kenton County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 1 in Ohio. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Hamilton County (405.5 mi²) and the smallest is Campbell County (151.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Kenton County forms a block of 1,498.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.7%.

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

Kenton County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6.4 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 246 areas the size of Kenton County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 12.7 miles (20.4 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 Kenton County?

Kenton County has more land than 171 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 Kenton County at #3,069 nationally by total area, 18 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 2.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.2 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 Kenton 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.