Dunklin County area

Population and density of Dunklin County

The Census Bureau estimates that 26,855 people lived in Dunklin County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,588 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #40 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 28,292, the population has declined by 1,437 (−5.1%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 541.9 square miles of land, that is 50 people per square mile (19 per km²), placing Dunklin County #1,561 nationally for density and #38 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 13 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 Dunklin County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Dunklin County. Together they are home to 19,593 people (73%); the other 7,262 (27%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Kennett city, with 10,118 residents in the county. By land, Malden city is the largest at 8.321 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Dunklin County is a central county of the Kennett, MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Dunklin County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 541.9 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #410 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #464 by population.

ZIP codes

14 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Dunklin County; 12 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

6382163822638296383763847638496385263855638576386363876638776388063933

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 Dunklin County

Dunklin County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents, including 4 in Arkansas. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Mississippi County (902.1 mi²) and the smallest is Pemiscot County (492.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Dunklin County forms a block of 6,053.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 9%.

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

Dunklin County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 127 areas the size of Dunklin County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.3 miles (37.5 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 Dunklin County?

Dunklin County has more land than 1,294 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 Dunklin County at #2,014 nationally by total area, 86 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Dunklin 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.