Butler County area

Population and density of Butler County

The Census Bureau estimates that 41,904 people lived in Butler County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,174 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #28 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 42,132, the population has declined by 228 (−0.5%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 694.8 square miles of land, that is 60 people per square mile (23 per km²), placing Butler County #1,382 nationally for density and #32 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. 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 Butler County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Butler County. Together they are home to 17,382 people (41.5%); the other 24,522 (58.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Poplar Bluff city, with 16,295 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Butler County is a central county of the Poplar Bluff, MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Butler County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 694.8 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #308 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #303 by population.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Butler County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

6390163932639376394063945639536395463961639626396663967

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 Butler County

Butler County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 1 in Arkansas. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Stoddard County (823.1 mi²) and the smallest is Carter County (507.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Butler County forms a block of 4,595.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.1%.

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

Butler County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 99 areas the size of Butler County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.4 miles (42.4 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 Butler County?

Butler County has more land than 1,877 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 Butler County at #1,442 nationally by total area, 97 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 Butler 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.