Christian County area

Population and density of Christian County

The Census Bureau estimates that 96,725 people lived in Christian County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #651 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #13 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 88,841, the population has grown by 7,884 (+8.9%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 562.6 square miles of land, that is 172 people per square mile (66 per km²), placing Christian County #699 nationally for density and #13 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 3.7 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 Christian County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Christian County. Together they are home to 58,916 people (60.9%); the other 37,809 (39.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Nixa city, with 26,597 residents in the county. The county seat, Ozark city, has 23,544 residents. By land, Springfield city is the largest at 84.5 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Nixa city grew fastest since then (+14.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Christian County is a central county of the Springfield, MO Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 500,694 residents on 3,007 square miles of land; Christian County accounts for 18.7% of the land and 19.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #98 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #112 by population.

ZIP codes

21 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Christian County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

656106561465619656206562965630656316565265653656576566965714657206572165728657376573865742657536575465759

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 Christian County

Christian County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Douglas County (813.6 mi²) and the smallest is Stone County (463.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Christian County forms a block of 4,351.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.9%.

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

Christian 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 122 areas the size of Christian County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.7 miles (38.2 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 Christian County?

Christian County has more land than 1,386 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 Christian County at #1,959 nationally by total area, 123 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 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 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 Christian 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.