Cape Girardeau County area

Population and density of Cape Girardeau County

The Census Bureau estimates that 83,999 people lived in Cape Girardeau County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #703 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #14 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 81,706, the population has grown by 2,293 (+2.8%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 578.5 square miles of land, that is 145 people per square mile (56 per km²), placing Cape Girardeau County #795 nationally for density and #16 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 4.4 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 Cape Girardeau County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Cape Girardeau County. Together they are home to 58,609 people (69.8%); the other 25,390 (30.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Cape Girardeau city, with 40,977 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Jackson city, has 16,033 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Cape Girardeau city grew fastest since then (+3.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Cape Girardeau County is a central county of the Cape Girardeau, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 99,215 residents on 1,431.8 square miles of land; Cape Girardeau County accounts for 40.4% of the land and 84.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #230 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #372 by population. It belongs to the Cape Girardeau-Sikeston, MO-IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

63701637036373063732637396374063743637446374563747637556376463766637696377063771637756378063785

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 Cape Girardeau County

Cape Girardeau County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Illinois. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Stoddard County (823.1 mi²) and the smallest is Alexander County (235.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Cape Girardeau County forms a block of 3,562.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.2%.

How big is Cape Girardeau County compared with U.S. states?

Cape Girardeau County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.8 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 119 areas the size of Cape Girardeau County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.1 miles (38.7 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 Cape Girardeau County?

Cape Girardeau County has more land than 1,515 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 Cape Girardeau County at #1,795 nationally by total area, 88 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 1.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Cape Girardeau 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.