Holmes County area

Population and density of Holmes County

The Census Bureau estimates that 15,465 people lived in Holmes County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,132 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #55 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 17,006, the population has declined by 1,541 (−9.1%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 756.7 square miles of land, that is 20 people per square mile (7.9 per km²), placing Holmes County #2,309 nationally for density and #64 in Mississippi. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Mississippi median is 43. Put another way, there are about 31 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 Holmes County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Holmes County. Together they are home to 7,417 people (48%); the other 8,048 (52%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Durant city, with 1,958 residents in the county. The county seat, Lexington city, has 1,395 residents. By land, Lexington city is the largest at 2.417 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Holmes County is an outlying county of the Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 8 county equivalents have 609,847 residents on 6,014.3 square miles of land; Holmes County accounts for 12.6% of the land and 2.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #36 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #97 by population. It belongs to the Jackson-Vicksburg-Brookhaven, MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Holmes County; 4 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

389243895439038390633907939095391463916939192

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 Holmes County

Holmes County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Yazoo County (922.3 mi²) and the smallest is Humphreys County (418.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Holmes County forms a block of 4,055.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.7%.

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

Holmes County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. Mississippi’s county land could hold about 62 areas the size of Holmes County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.5 miles (44.3 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 Holmes County?

Holmes County has more land than 2,058 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 Holmes County at #1,255 nationally by total area, 91 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.1 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 Holmes 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.