Cole County area

Population and density of Cole County

The Census Bureau estimates that 77,908 people lived in Cole County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #750 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #16 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 77,280, the population has grown by 628 (+0.8%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 391.6 square miles of land, that is 199 people per square mile (77 per km²), placing Cole County #643 nationally for density and #12 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 3.2 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 Cole County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Cole County. Together they are home to 48,057 people (61.7%); the other 29,851 (38.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Jefferson City city, with 42,467 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, St. Martins city grew fastest since then (+4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Cole County is a central 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; Cole County accounts for 17.4% of the land and 51% 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

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

650236503265040650536505865074650766510165109

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 Cole County

Cole County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Cole County. The largest neighbor is Callaway County (834.6 mi²) and the smallest is Moniteau County (415.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Cole County forms a block of 3,526 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.1%.

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

Cole County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.6 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 176 areas the size of Cole County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 19.8 miles (31.8 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 Cole County?

Cole County has more land than 655 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 Cole County at #2,604 nationally by total area, 37 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 1.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Cole 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.