Scott County area

Population and density of Scott County

The Census Bureau estimates that 37,975 people lived in Scott County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,266 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #32 of 115 in Missouri. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 38,054, the population has declined by 79 (−0.2%), compared with +1.9% for Missouri as a whole.

With 420 square miles of land, that is 90 people per square mile (35 per km²), placing Scott County #1,069 nationally for density and #22 in Missouri. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Missouri median is 31. Put another way, there are about 7.1 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 Scott County

14 incorporated places lie at least partly in Scott County. Together they are home to 26,642 people (70.2%); the other 11,333 (29.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Sikeston city, with 14,062 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Benton city, has 919 residents. By land, Cape Girardeau city is the largest at 29.3 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Scott City city grew fastest since then (+6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Scott County is a central county of the Sikeston, MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 49,978 residents on 831.6 square miles of land; Scott County accounts for 50.5% of the land and 76% 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

14 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Scott County; 11 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

6373563736637406374263758637676377163774637806378463801638236382463834

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 Scott County

Scott County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 1 in Illinois. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Stoddard County (823.1 mi²) and the smallest is Alexander County (235.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Scott County forms a block of 3,143.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.4%.

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

Scott 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 164 areas the size of Scott County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.5 miles (33 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 Scott County?

Scott County has more land than 809 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 Scott County at #2,461 nationally by total area, 48 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 1.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Scott 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.