Moniteau County area

Population and density of Moniteau County

The Census Bureau estimates that 15,428 people lived in Moniteau County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,133 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #65 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 15,473, the population has declined by 45 (−0.3%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 415.1 square miles of land, that is 37 people per square mile (14 per km²), placing Moniteau County #1,822 nationally for density and #50 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 17 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 Moniteau County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Moniteau County. Together they are home to 7,909 people (51.3%); the other 7,519 (48.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is California city, with 4,523 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, California city grew fastest since then (+0.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Moniteau County is an outlying 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; Moniteau County accounts for 18.5% of the land and 10.1% 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

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

65011650186502365025650346504665050650646506865074650816508465287

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 Moniteau County

Moniteau County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Boone County (685.6 mi²) and the smallest is Cole County (391.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Moniteau County forms a block of 3,247.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.8%.

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

Moniteau 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 166 areas the size of Moniteau County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.4 miles (32.8 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 Moniteau County?

Moniteau County has more land than 786 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 Moniteau County at #2,496 nationally by total area, 60 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 0.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Moniteau 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.