Pike County area

Population and density of Pike County

The Census Bureau estimates that 54,721 people lived in Pike County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #964 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 120 in Kentucky. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 58,667, the population has declined by 3,946 (−6.7%), compared with +2.2% for Kentucky as a whole.

With 786.2 square miles of land, that is 70 people per square mile (27 per km²), placing Pike County #1,265 nationally for density and #53 in Kentucky. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Kentucky median is 59. Put another way, there are about 9.2 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 Pike County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Pike County. Together they are home to 9,798 people (17.9%); the other 44,923 (82.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Pikeville city, with 7,270 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Pike County is a central county of the Pikeville, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 89,122 residents on 1,179.5 square miles of land; Pike County accounts for 66.7% of the land and 61.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #145 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #49 by population.

ZIP codes

39 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Pike County; 37 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

415014150341512415134151441519415224152441526415274152841531415344153541537415384153941540415434154441547415484155341554415554155741558415594156041562415634156441566415674156841571415724160541659

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 Pike County

Pike County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents, including 4 in West Virginia and Virginia. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Buchanan County (502.9 mi²) and the smallest is Martin County (229.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Pike County forms a block of 3,758.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 20.9%.

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

Pike County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.3 times as much. Kentucky’s county land could hold about 50 areas the size of Pike County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 28 miles (45.1 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 Pike County?

Pike County has more land than 2,124 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 Pike County at #1,208 nationally by total area, 110 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 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 Pike 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.