Carter County area

Population and density of Carter County

The Census Bureau estimates that 57,361 people lived in Carter County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #934 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #31 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 56,365, the population has grown by 996 (+1.8%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 341.3 square miles of land, that is 168 people per square mile (65 per km²), placing Carter County #715 nationally for density and #23 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 3.8 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 Carter County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Carter County. Together they are home to 16,088 people (28%); the other 41,273 (72%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Elizabethton city, with 14,350 residents in the county. By land, Johnson City city is the largest at 44 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Johnson City city grew fastest since then (+4.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Carter County is a central county of the Johnson City, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 216,416 residents on 853.9 square miles of land; Carter County accounts for 40% of the land and 26.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #300 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #225 by population. It belongs to the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Carter County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3760137604376403764337658376823768737694

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 Carter County

Carter County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in North Carolina. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Sullivan County (413.5 mi²) and the smallest is Unicoi County (186.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Carter County forms a block of 2,034.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.8%.

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

Carter County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 121 areas the size of Carter County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 18.5 miles (29.7 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 Carter County?

Carter County has more land than 516 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 Carter County at #2,737 nationally by total area, 31 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 1.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Carter 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.