Howell County area

Population and density of Howell County

The Census Bureau estimates that 40,798 people lived in Howell County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,196 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #29 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 39,749, the population has grown by 1,049 (+2.6%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 927.2 square miles of land, that is 44 people per square mile (17 per km²), placing Howell County #1,665 nationally for density and #43 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 15 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 Howell County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Howell County. Together they are home to 17,781 people (43.6%); the other 23,017 (56.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is West Plains city, with 12,780 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, West Plains city grew fastest since then (+4.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Howell County is a central county of the West Plains, MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Howell County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 927.2 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #204 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #315 by population.

ZIP codes

13 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Howell County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

65548656096562665637656886568965692657756577765788657896579065793

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 Howell County

Howell County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 1 in Arkansas. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Texas County (1,177.3 mi²) and the smallest is Fulton County (618 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Howell County forms a block of 6,074.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.3%.

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

Howell County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.1 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 74 areas the size of Howell County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 30.4 miles (49 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 Howell County?

Howell County has more land than 2,443 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 Howell County at #885 nationally by total area, 106 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 0.1%, 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 Howell 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.