Oktibbeha County area

Population and density of Oktibbeha County

The Census Bureau estimates that 51,896 people lived in Oktibbeha County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #997 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #15 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 51,779, the population has grown by 117 (+0.2%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 457.6 square miles of land, that is 113 people per square mile (44 per km²), placing Oktibbeha County #912 nationally for density and #10 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 Oktibbeha County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Oktibbeha County. Together they are home to 26,428 people (50.9%); the other 25,468 (49.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Starkville city, with 25,754 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Oktibbeha County is a central county of the Starkville, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 62,063 residents on 878.8 square miles of land; Oktibbeha County accounts for 52.1% of the land and 83.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #226 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #154 by population. It belongs to the Starkville-Columbus, MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

6 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Oktibbeha County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

397433975039755397593976239769

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 Oktibbeha County

Oktibbeha County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Noxubee County (695.4 mi²) and the smallest is Clay County (410 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Oktibbeha County forms a block of 3,515.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 13%.

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

Oktibbeha County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.3 times as much. Mississippi’s county land could hold about 103 areas the size of Oktibbeha County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.4 miles (34.4 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 Oktibbeha County?

Oktibbeha County has more land than 980 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 Oktibbeha County at #2,313 nationally by total area, 71 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 0.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 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 Oktibbeha 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.