Larue County area

Population and density of Larue County

The Census Bureau estimates that 15,184 people lived in Larue County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,152 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #74 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 14,869, the population has grown by 315 (+2.1%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 261.1 square miles of land, that is 58 people per square mile (22 per km²), placing Larue County #1,412 nationally for density and #63 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 11 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 Larue County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Larue County. Together they are home to 3,702 people (24.4%); the other 11,482 (75.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Hodgenville city, with 3,378 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Larue County is an outlying county of the Elizabethtown, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 128,666 residents on 885 square miles of land; Larue County accounts for 29.5% of the land and 11.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #296 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #325 by population. It belongs to the Louisville/Jefferson County--Elizabethtown, KY-IN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Larue County; 2 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

400514005242716427184274842757427644277642784

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 Larue County

Larue County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Larue County. The largest neighbor is Hardin County (623.9 mi²) and the smallest is Taylor County (266.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Larue County forms a block of 2,612.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 10%.

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

Larue County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 151 areas the size of Larue County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 16.2 miles (26 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 Larue County?

Larue County has more land than 338 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 Larue County at #2,920 nationally by total area, 36 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Larue 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.