Callaway County area

Population and density of Callaway County

The Census Bureau estimates that 45,765 people lived in Callaway County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,097 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #23 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 44,284, the population has grown by 1,481 (+3.3%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 834.6 square miles of land, that is 55 people per square mile (21 per km²), placing Callaway County #1,465 nationally for density and #33 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 12 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 Callaway County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Callaway County. Together they are home to 19,747 people (43.1%); the other 26,018 (56.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Fulton city, with 12,853 residents in the county. By land, Jefferson City city is the largest at 36.1 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Holts Summit city grew fastest since then (+8%).

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

Metropolitan area

Callaway County is an outlying county of the Jefferson City, MO Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 152,712 residents on 2,247.8 square miles of land; Callaway County accounts for 37.1% of the land and 30% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #144 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #293 by population. It belongs to the Columbia-Jefferson City-Moberly, MO Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

63361633846338865039650436505965063650676506965077650806510165201652026523165240652516526265264

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 Callaway County

Callaway County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Audrain County (692.3 mi²) and the smallest is Cole County (391.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Callaway County forms a block of 3,745.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 22.3%.

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

Callaway County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.2 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 82 areas the size of Callaway County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 28.9 miles (46.5 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 Callaway County?

Callaway County has more land than 2,214 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 Callaway County at #1,091 nationally by total area, 83 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 1.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Callaway 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.