Lowndes County area

Population and density of Lowndes County

The Census Bureau estimates that 57,346 people lived in Lowndes County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #935 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #14 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 58,887, the population has declined by 1,541 (−2.6%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 506.1 square miles of land, that is 113 people per square mile (44 per km²), placing Lowndes County #913 nationally for density and #11 in Mississippi. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Mississippi median is 43. Put another way, there are about 5.6 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 Lowndes County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lowndes County. Together they are home to 24,647 people (43%); the other 32,699 (57%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Columbus city, with 22,792 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Lowndes County is a central county of the Columbus, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 67,144 residents on 1,201.4 square miles of land; Lowndes County accounts for 42.1% of the land and 85.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #144 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #124 by population. It belongs to the Starkville-Columbus, MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Lowndes County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

397013970239705397363974039743397533975939766

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 Lowndes County

Lowndes County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Alabama. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Pickens County (881.4 mi²) and the smallest is Clay County (410 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lowndes County forms a block of 4,320.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.7%.

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

Lowndes 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 times as much. Mississippi’s county land could hold about 93 areas the size of Lowndes County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.5 miles (36.2 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 Lowndes County?

Lowndes County has more land than 1,170 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 Lowndes County at #2,113 nationally by total area, 61 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 2.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 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 Lowndes 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.