Prentiss County area

Population and density of Prentiss County

The Census Bureau estimates that 25,284 people lived in Prentiss County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,661 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #36 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 25,004, the population has grown by 280 (+1.1%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 415 square miles of land, that is 61 people per square mile (24 per km²), placing Prentiss County #1,374 nationally for density and #24 in Mississippi. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Mississippi median is 43. Put another way, there are about 11 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 Prentiss County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Prentiss County. Together they are home to 11,726 people (46.4%); the other 13,558 (53.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Booneville city, with 9,257 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Booneville city grew fastest since then (+0.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Prentiss County is an outlying county of the Tupelo, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 133,167 residents on 1,397.7 square miles of land; Prentiss County accounts for 29.7% of the land and 19% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #120 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #11 by population. It belongs to the Tupelo-Corinth, MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Prentiss County; 2 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3882438829388333883838856388593886538873

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 Prentiss County

Prentiss County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Itawamba County (532.8 mi²) and the smallest is Alcorn County (400 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Prentiss County forms a block of 3,095.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.4%.

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

Prentiss County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.5 times as much. Mississippi’s county land could hold about 113 areas the size of Prentiss County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.4 miles (32.8 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 Prentiss County?

Prentiss County has more land than 785 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 Prentiss County at #2,498 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 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 Prentiss 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.