Stone County area

Population and density of Stone County

The Census Bureau estimates that 19,654 people lived in Stone County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,905 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #47 of 82 in Mississippi. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 18,336, the population has grown by 1,318 (+7.2%), compared with −0.2% for Mississippi as a whole.

With 445.5 square miles of land, that is 44 people per square mile (17 per km²), placing Stone County #1,662 nationally for density and #37 in Mississippi. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Mississippi median is 43. Put another way, there are about 15 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 Stone County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Stone County. Together they are home to 4,316 people (22%); the other 15,338 (78%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Wiggins city, with 4,316 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Stone County is an outlying county of the Gulfport-Biloxi, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 431,329 residents on 2,216 square miles of land; Stone County accounts for 20.1% of the land and 4.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #145 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #131 by population.

ZIP codes

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

394553947039561395733957439577

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 Stone County

Stone County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Stone County. The largest neighbor is Pearl River County (811.5 mi²) and the smallest is Forrest County (466 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Stone County forms a block of 4,145.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.7%.

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

Stone 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 105 areas the size of Stone County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.1 miles (34 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 Stone County?

Stone County has more land than 938 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 Stone County at #2,351 nationally by total area, 67 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 0.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Stone 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.