Cheatham County area

Population and density of Cheatham County

The Census Bureau estimates that 42,778 people lived in Cheatham County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,157 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #39 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 41,023, the population has grown by 1,755 (+4.3%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 302.5 square miles of land, that is 141 people per square mile (55 per km²), placing Cheatham County #804 nationally for density and #26 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 4.5 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 Cheatham County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Cheatham County. Together they are home to 16,241 people (38%); the other 26,537 (62%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Pleasant View city, with 5,797 residents in the county. The county seat, Ashland City town, has 5,650 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Pleasant View city grew fastest since then (+20.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Cheatham County is an outlying county of the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 14 county equivalents have 2,197,416 residents on 6,302.2 square miles of land; Cheatham County accounts for 4.8% of the land and 1.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #31 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #34 by population. It belongs to the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro, TN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Cheatham County; 4 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

370153703237035370363704337062370803708237143371463718737209

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 Cheatham County

Cheatham County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Cheatham County. The largest neighbor is Williamson County (582.9 mi²) and the smallest is Robertson County (476.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Cheatham County forms a block of 2,894.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.5%.

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

Cheatham County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.4 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 136 areas the size of Cheatham County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17.4 miles (28 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 Cheatham County?

Cheatham County has more land than 416 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 Cheatham County at #2,836 nationally by total area, 30 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 1.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Cheatham 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.