Jones County area

Population and density of Jones County

The Census Bureau estimates that 66,496 people lived in Jones County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #837 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #11 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 67,249, the population has declined by 753 (−1.1%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 694.8 square miles of land, that is 96 people per square mile (37 per km²), placing Jones County #1,024 nationally for density and #14 in Mississippi. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Mississippi median is 43. Put another way, there are about 6.7 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 Jones County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Jones County. Together they are home to 23,173 people (34.8%); the other 43,323 (65.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Laurel city, with 17,662 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Jones County is a central county of the Laurel, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 82,281 residents on 1,371.2 square miles of land; Jones County accounts for 50.7% of the land and 80.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #124 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #66 by population. It belongs to the Hattiesburg-Laurel, MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

13 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Jones County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

39168394013943739439394403944339459394643946539476394773947939480

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 Jones County

Jones County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Wayne County (810.7 mi²) and the smallest is Covington County (413.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Jones County forms a block of 4,345.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 16%.

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

Jones County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. Mississippi’s county land could hold about 68 areas the size of Jones County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.4 miles (42.4 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 Jones County?

Jones County has more land than 1,878 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 Jones County at #1,440 nationally by total area, 96 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 0.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 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 Jones 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.