Cherokee County area

Population and density of Cherokee County

The Census Bureau estimates that 49,196 people lived in Cherokee County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,037 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #19 of 77 in Oklahoma. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 47,071, the population has grown by 2,125 (+4.5%), compared with +4.1% for Oklahoma as a whole.

With 749.1 square miles of land, that is 66 people per square mile (25 per km²), placing Cherokee County #1,310 nationally for density and #15 in Oklahoma. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Oklahoma median is 28. Put another way, there are about 9.7 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 Cherokee County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Cherokee County. Together they are home to 18,018 people (36.6%); the other 31,178 (63.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Tahlequah city, with 17,508 residents in the county. By land, Fort Gibson town is the largest at 13.3 mi² across all its counties.

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

Metropolitan area

Cherokee County is a central county of the Tahlequah, OK Micropolitan Statistical Area. Cherokee County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 749.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #289 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #232 by population.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Cherokee County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

74347743527435974364744277443474441744517445274457744647447174931749607496274964

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 Cherokee County

Cherokee County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Muskogee County (810.7 mi²) and the smallest is Wagoner County (561.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Cherokee County forms a block of 4,762.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.7%.

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

Cherokee County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. Oklahoma’s county land could hold about 92 areas the size of Cherokee County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 27.4 miles (44 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 Cherokee County?

Cherokee County has more land than 2,045 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 Cherokee County at #1,226 nationally by total area, 49 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 3.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.3 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 Cherokee 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.