Hamblen County area

Population and density of Hamblen County

The Census Bureau estimates that 68,843 people lived in Hamblen County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #812 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #21 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 64,507, the population has grown by 4,336 (+6.7%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 161.2 square miles of land, that is 427 people per square mile (165 per km²), placing Hamblen County #389 nationally for density and #9 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 1.5 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 Hamblen County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Hamblen County. Together they are home to 33,513 people (48.7%); the other 35,330 (51.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Morristown city, with 33,513 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county).

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

Metropolitan area

Hamblen County is a central county of the Morristown, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 128,867 residents on 436.3 square miles of land; Hamblen County accounts for 36.9% of the land and 53.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #370 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #322 by population. It belongs to the Knoxville-Morristown-Sevierville, TN Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

37711378133781437860378773789037891

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 Hamblen County

Hamblen County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Hamblen County. The largest neighbor is Greene County (622.2 mi²) and the smallest is Jefferson County (275.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Hamblen County forms a block of 2,262.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 7.1%.

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

Hamblen County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6.4 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 256 areas the size of Hamblen County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 12.7 miles (20.4 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 Hamblen County?

Hamblen County has more land than 173 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 Hamblen County at #3,056 nationally by total area, 7 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 8.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 7.1 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 Hamblen 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.