Rankin County area

Population and density of Rankin County

The Census Bureau estimates that 162,181 people lived in Rankin County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #435 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #4 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 157,022, the population has grown by 5,159 (+3.3%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 775.5 square miles of land, that is 209 people per square mile (81 per km²), placing Rankin County #621 nationally for density and #4 in Mississippi. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Mississippi median is 43. Put another way, there are about 3.1 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 Rankin County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Rankin County. Together they are home to 80,111 people (49.4%); the other 82,070 (50.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Pearl city, with 28,864 residents in the county. The county seat, Brandon city, has 26,122 residents. By land, Jackson city is the largest at 111.7 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Flowood city grew fastest since then (+7.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Rankin County is a central county of the Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 8 county equivalents have 609,847 residents on 6,014.3 square miles of land; Rankin County accounts for 12.9% of the land and 26.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #36 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #97 by population. It belongs to the Jackson-Vicksburg-Brookhaven, MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

14 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Rankin County; 10 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3904239044390473907339094391143911739145391483916739193392083921839232

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 Rankin County

Rankin County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Hinds County (869.8 mi²) and the smallest is Simpson County (589.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Rankin County forms a block of 4,194.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.5%.

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

Rankin County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.3 times as much. Mississippi’s county land could hold about 61 areas the size of Rankin County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.8 miles (44.8 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 Rankin County?

Rankin County has more land than 2,101 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 Rankin County at #1,162 nationally by total area, 41 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 3.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.6 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 Rankin 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.