McCracken County area

Population and density of McCracken County

The Census Bureau estimates that 67,553 people lived in McCracken County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #822 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #13 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 67,873, the population has declined by 320 (−0.5%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 248.8 square miles of land, that is 272 people per square mile (105 per km²), placing McCracken County #546 nationally for density and #11 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 2.4 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 McCracken County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in McCracken County. Together they are home to 26,730 people (39.6%); the other 40,823 (60.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Paducah city, with 26,730 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

McCracken County is a central county of the Paducah, KY-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 102,259 residents on 1,235.5 square miles of land; McCracken County accounts for 20.1% of the land and 66.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #252 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #364 by population. It belongs to the Paducah-Mayfield, KY-IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

42001420034202742053420694208242086

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 McCracken County

McCracken County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 2 in Illinois. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Graves County (551.8 mi²) and the smallest is Carlisle County (189.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, McCracken County forms a block of 2,288.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.9%.

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

McCracken County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.2 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 159 areas the size of McCracken County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 15.8 miles (25.4 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 McCracken County?

McCracken County has more land than 306 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 McCracken County at #2,906 nationally by total area, 10 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 7.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 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 McCracken 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.