Lawrence County area

Population and density of Lawrence County

The Census Bureau estimates that 15,765 people lived in Lawrence County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,122 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #73 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 16,288, the population has declined by 523 (−3.2%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 415.6 square miles of land, that is 38 people per square mile (15 per km²), placing Lawrence County #1,795 nationally for density and #90 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 17 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 Lawrence County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lawrence County. Together they are home to 2,584 people (16.4%); the other 13,181 (83.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Louisa city, with 2,520 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Lawrence County is an outlying 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; Lawrence County accounts for 14.3% of the land and 4.3% 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

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

41124411294113241159411804120141230412324125441264

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 Lawrence County

Lawrence County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 1 in West Virginia. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Wayne County (506 mi²) and the smallest is Boyd County (159.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lawrence County forms a block of 2,598 mi² of land, of which it holds 16%.

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

Lawrence County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.5 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 95 areas the size of Lawrence County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.4 miles (32.8 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 Lawrence County?

Lawrence County has more land than 789 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 Lawrence County at #2,491 nationally by total area, 58 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 1.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.1 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 Lawrence 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.