Muskingum County area

Population and density of Muskingum County

The Census Bureau estimates that 87,014 people lived in Muskingum County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #690 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #31 of 88 in Ohio. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 86,404, the population has grown by 610 (+0.7%), compared with +0.9% for Ohio as a whole.

With 664.5 square miles of land, that is 131 people per square mile (51 per km²), placing Muskingum County #834 nationally for density and #38 in Ohio. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Ohio median is 120. Put another way, there are about 4.9 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 Muskingum County

11 incorporated places lie at least partly in Muskingum County. Together they are home to 34,359 people (39.5%); the other 52,655 (60.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Zanesville city, with 25,138 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, New Concord village grew fastest since then (+4.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Muskingum County is a central county of the Zanesville, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. Muskingum County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 664.5 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #326 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #56 by population. It belongs to the Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

23 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Muskingum County; 16 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4305643701437204372743732437344373543738437404374643756437604376243767437714377743791438024381243821438224383043842

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 Muskingum County

Muskingum County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Licking County (682.4 mi²) and the smallest is Noble County (398 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Muskingum County forms a block of 3,655.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.2%.

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

Muskingum County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. Ohio’s county land could hold about 61 areas the size of Muskingum County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.8 miles (41.5 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 Muskingum County?

Muskingum County has more land than 1,808 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 Muskingum County at #1,515 nationally by total area, 101 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 1.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2%. The two percentages are within 0.1 percentage points of each other. 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 Muskingum 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.