Mississippi County area

Population and density of Mississippi County

The Census Bureau estimates that 12,003 people lived in Mississippi County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,351 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #76 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 12,575, the population has declined by 572 (−4.5%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 411.6 square miles of land, that is 29 people per square mile (11 per km²), placing Mississippi County #2,028 nationally for density and #62 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 22 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 Mississippi County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Mississippi County. Together they are home to 8,736 people (72.8%); the other 3,267 (27.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Charleston city, with 4,731 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Mississippi County is an outlying county of the Sikeston, MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 49,978 residents on 831.6 square miles of land; Mississippi County accounts for 49.5% of the land and 24% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #246 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #225 by population. It belongs to the Cape Girardeau-Sikeston, MO-IL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

6 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Mississippi County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

638016382063823638346384563882

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 Mississippi County

Mississippi County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 5 in Kentucky and Illinois. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is New Madrid County (674.9 mi²) and the smallest is Carlisle County (189.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Mississippi County forms a block of 2,626.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.7%.

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

Mississippi County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.5 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 167 areas the size of Mississippi County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.3 miles (32.7 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 Mississippi County?

Mississippi County has more land than 766 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 Mississippi County at #2,452 nationally by total area, 4 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.8 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 Mississippi 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.