Metcalfe County area

Population and density of Metcalfe County

The Census Bureau estimates that 10,583 people lived in Metcalfe County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,443 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #98 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 10,288, the population has grown by 295 (+2.9%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 289.7 square miles of land, that is 37 people per square mile (14 per km²), placing Metcalfe County #1,838 nationally for density and #96 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 Metcalfe County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Metcalfe County. Together they are home to 1,713 people (16.2%); the other 8,870 (83.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Edmonton city, with 1,713 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Metcalfe County is an outlying county of the Glasgow, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 56,224 residents on 777 square miles of land; Metcalfe County accounts for 37.3% of the land and 18.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #276 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #188 by population. It belongs to the Bowling Green-Glasgow-Franklin, KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Metcalfe County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

42124421294215442166421674221442715427284274642749

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 Metcalfe County

Metcalfe County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Barren County (487.4 mi²) and the smallest is Green County (286 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Metcalfe County forms a block of 2,515.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.5%.

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

Metcalfe County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.6 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 136 areas the size of Metcalfe County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17 miles (27.4 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 Metcalfe County?

Metcalfe County has more land than 397 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 Metcalfe County at #2,858 nationally by total area, 33 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 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Metcalfe 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.