Licking County area

Population and density of Licking County

The Census Bureau estimates that 185,564 people lived in Licking County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #380 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #16 of 88 in Ohio. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 178,501, the population has grown by 7,063 (+4%), compared with +0.9% for Ohio as a whole.

With 682.4 square miles of land, that is 272 people per square mile (105 per km²), placing Licking County #545 nationally for density and #23 in Ohio. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Ohio median is 120. Put another way, there are about 2.4 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 Licking County

16 incorporated places lie at least partly in Licking County. Together they are home to 114,485 people (61.7%); the other 71,079 (38.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Newark city, with 51,473 residents in the county. By land, Pataskala city is the largest at 29 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Hanover village grew fastest since then (+10.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Licking County is an outlying county of the Columbus, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 10 county equivalents have 2,242,028 residents on 4,797.5 square miles of land; Licking County accounts for 14.2% of the land and 8.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #55 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #32 by population. It belongs to the Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

30 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Licking County; 17 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

430014300843011430134301843023430254302743030430314303343046430544305543056430624306843071430744307643080431054314743721437394374043746437604382243830

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 Licking County

Licking County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Muskingum County (664.5 mi²) and the smallest is Perry County (407.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Licking County forms a block of 4,324.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.8%.

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

Licking County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. Ohio’s county land could hold about 60 areas the size of Licking County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.1 miles (42 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 Licking County?

Licking County has more land than 1,850 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 Licking County at #1,474 nationally by total area, 102 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 0.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 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 Licking 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.