Perry County area

Population and density of Perry County

The Census Bureau estimates that 11,577 people lived in Perry County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,386 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #64 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 11,510, the population has grown by 67 (+0.6%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 647.3 square miles of land, that is 18 people per square mile (6.9 per km²), placing Perry County #2,388 nationally for density and #69 in Mississippi. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Mississippi median is 43. Put another way, there are about 36 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 Perry County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Perry County. Together they are home to 2,183 people (18.9%); the other 9,394 (81.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Richton town, with 946 residents in the county. The county seat, New Augusta town, has 557 residents. By land, New Augusta town is the largest at 5.144 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Perry County is an outlying county of the Hattiesburg, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 158,014 residents on 1,609.9 square miles of land; Perry County accounts for 40.2% of the land and 7.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #202 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #279 by population. It belongs to the Hattiesburg-Laurel, MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

3942339425394563946239464394653947639577

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 Perry County

Perry County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Wayne County (810.7 mi²) and the smallest is Stone County (445.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Perry County forms a block of 4,255.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.2%.

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

Perry County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. Mississippi’s county land could hold about 72 areas the size of Perry County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.4 miles (40.9 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 Perry County?

Perry County has more land than 1,762 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 Perry County at #1,578 nationally by total area, 118 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 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Perry 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.