Lafayette County area

Population and density of Lafayette County

The Census Bureau estimates that 33,531 people lived in Lafayette County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,392 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #36 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 32,989, the population has grown by 542 (+1.6%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 628.3 square miles of land, that is 53 people per square mile (21 per km²), placing Lafayette County #1,491 nationally for density and #34 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 12 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 Lafayette County

17 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lafayette County. Together they are home to 21,151 people (63.1%); the other 12,380 (36.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Odessa city, with 5,721 residents in the county. The county seat, Lexington city, has 4,568 residents. By land, Oak Grove city is the largest at 6.545 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Odessa city grew fastest since then (+2.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Lafayette County is an outlying county of the Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 14 county equivalents have 2,270,682 residents on 7,256.8 square miles of land; Lafayette County accounts for 8.7% of the land and 1.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #25 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #31 by population. It belongs to the Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

64001640116401764020640216402264037640676407164074640756407664096640976532165327

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 Lafayette County

Lafayette County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Johnson County (829.3 mi²) and the smallest is Ray County (569 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lafayette County forms a block of 4,763.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.2%.

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

Lafayette County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 109 areas the size of Lafayette County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.1 miles (40.3 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 Lafayette County?

Lafayette County has more land than 1,690 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 Lafayette County at #1,619 nationally by total area, 87 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 1.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 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 Lafayette 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.