McLean County area

Population and density of McLean County

The Census Bureau estimates that 9,064 people lived in McLean County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,558 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #102 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 9,151, the population has declined by 87 (−1%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 252.5 square miles of land, that is 36 people per square mile (14 per km²), placing McLean County #1,854 nationally for density and #99 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 18 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 McLean County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in McLean County. Together they are home to 2,787 people (30.7%); the other 6,277 (69.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Livermore city, with 1,197 residents in the county. The county seat, Calhoun city, has 720 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

McLean County is an outlying county of the Owensboro, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 113,962 residents on 710.9 square miles of land; McLean County accounts for 35.5% of the land and 8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #318 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #345 by population.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in McLean County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4230142322423274235042352423714237242376

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 McLean County

McLean County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than McLean County. The largest neighbor is Ohio County (587.1 mi²) and the smallest is Webster County (332 mi²). Together with its neighbors, McLean County forms a block of 3,076 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.2%.

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

McLean County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.1 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 156 areas the size of McLean County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 15.9 miles (25.6 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 McLean County?

McLean County has more land than 320 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 McLean County at #2,936 nationally by total area, 34 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% — 0.3 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 McLean 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.