Caldwell County area

Population and density of Caldwell County

The Census Bureau estimates that 9,012 people lived in Caldwell County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,564 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #92 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 8,815, the population has grown by 197 (+2.2%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 426.4 square miles of land, that is 21 people per square mile (8.2 per km²), placing Caldwell County #2,283 nationally for density and #79 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 30 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 Caldwell County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Caldwell County. Together they are home to 3,990 people (44.3%); the other 5,022 (55.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Hamilton city, with 1,726 residents in the county. The county seat, Kingston city, has 294 residents. By land, Cameron city is the largest at 6.939 mi² across all its counties.

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

Metropolitan area

Caldwell County is an outlying county of the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 14 county equivalents have 2,270,682 residents on 7,256.8 square miles of land; Caldwell County accounts for 5.9% of the land and 0.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #25 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #31 by population. It belongs to the Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

64062644296446564624646256463764644646496465064671

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 Caldwell County

Caldwell County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Carroll County (694.6 mi²) and the smallest is Clinton County (418.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Caldwell County forms a block of 3,625.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.8%.

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

Caldwell County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.4 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 161 areas the size of Caldwell County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.6 miles (33.2 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 Caldwell County?

Caldwell County has more land than 842 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 Caldwell County at #2,449 nationally by total area, 69 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 Caldwell 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.