Nelson County area

Population and density of Nelson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 49,036 people lived in Nelson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,040 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #21 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 46,732, the population has grown by 2,304 (+4.9%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 418.7 square miles of land, that is 117 people per square mile (45 per km²), placing Nelson County #890 nationally for density and #24 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 5.5 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 Nelson County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Nelson County. Together they are home to 16,147 people (32.9%); the other 32,889 (67.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bardstown city, with 14,161 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Nelson County is an outlying county of the Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 12 county equivalents have 1,402,509 residents on 3,960.8 square miles of land; Nelson County accounts for 10.6% of the land and 3.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #74 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #44 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 Nelson County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

400044000840012400134002040037400514005240107

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 Nelson County

Nelson County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Hardin County (623.9 mi²) and the smallest is Spencer County (186.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Nelson County forms a block of 2,630.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.9%.

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

Nelson 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 94 areas the size of Nelson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.5 miles (32.9 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 Nelson County?

Nelson County has more land than 803 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 Nelson County at #2,470 nationally by total area, 51 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 1.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.1 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 Nelson 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.