Nodaway County area

Population and density of Nodaway County

The Census Bureau estimates that 20,174 people lived in Nodaway County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,872 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #55 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 21,240, the population has declined by 1,066 (−5%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 877 square miles of land, that is 23 people per square mile (8.9 per km²), placing Nodaway County #2,207 nationally for density and #70 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 28 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 Nodaway County

15 incorporated places lie at least partly in Nodaway County. Together they are home to 12,818 people (63.5%); the other 7,356 (36.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Maryville city, with 10,092 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Nodaway County is a central county of the Maryville, MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Nodaway County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 877 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #228 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #515 by population.

ZIP codes

18 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Nodaway County; 15 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

644236442764428644316443264433644346444564455644576446164468644756447664479644866448764489

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 Nodaway County

Nodaway County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 2 in Iowa. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Atchison County (547.3 mi²) and the smallest is Worth County (266.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Nodaway County forms a block of 4,144.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 21.2%.

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

Nodaway County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.2 times as much. Missouri’s county land could hold about 78 areas the size of Nodaway County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 29.6 miles (47.7 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 Nodaway County?

Nodaway County has more land than 2,304 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 Nodaway County at #1,031 nationally by total area, 113 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% — 1.1 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 Nodaway 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.