Dickson County area

Population and density of Dickson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 58,662 people lived in Dickson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #920 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #28 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 54,316, the population has grown by 4,346 (+8%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 489.9 square miles of land, that is 120 people per square mile (46 per km²), placing Dickson County #875 nationally for density and #30 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 5.3 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 Dickson County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Dickson County. Together they are home to 25,919 people (44.2%); the other 32,743 (55.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Dickson city, with 17,051 residents in the county. The county seat, Charlotte town, has 1,647 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Burns town grew fastest since then (+20.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Dickson 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; Dickson County accounts for 7.8% of the land and 2.7% 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

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

3702537029370363705137052370553706237165371713718137187

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 Dickson County

Dickson County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Hickman County (612.5 mi²) and the smallest is Houston County (200.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Dickson County forms a block of 3,258 mi² of land, of which it holds 15%.

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

Dickson County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.1 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 84 areas the size of Dickson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.1 miles (35.6 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 Dickson County?

Dickson County has more land than 1,096 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 Dickson County at #2,215 nationally by total area, 89 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 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 Dickson 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.