Hancock County area

Population and density of Hancock County

The Census Bureau estimates that 46,873 people lived in Hancock County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,067 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #16 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 46,046, the population has grown by 827 (+1.8%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 474 square miles of land, that is 99 people per square mile (38 per km²), placing Hancock County #1,007 nationally for density and #13 in Mississippi. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Mississippi median is 43. Put another way, there are about 6.5 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 Hancock County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Hancock County. Together they are home to 27,117 people (57.9%); the other 19,756 (42.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bay St. Louis city, with 10,634 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Bay St. Louis city grew fastest since then (+14.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Hancock County is a central county of the Gulfport-Biloxi, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 431,329 residents on 2,216 square miles of land; Hancock County accounts for 21.4% of the land and 10.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #145 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #131 by population.

ZIP codes

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

3942639466394703952039525395293955639571395723957339576

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 Hancock County

Hancock County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents, including 1 in Louisiana. Each of them has more land than Hancock County. The largest neighbor is St. Tammany Parish (845.3 mi²) and the smallest is Harrison County (573.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Hancock County forms a block of 2,704.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.5%.

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

Hancock County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.2 times as much. Mississippi’s county land could hold about 99 areas the size of Hancock County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.8 miles (35 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 Hancock County?

Hancock County has more land than 1,049 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 Hancock County at #1,998 nationally by total area, 175 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 14.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 13.1 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 Hancock 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.