Hawkins County area

Population and density of Hawkins County

The Census Bureau estimates that 59,559 people lived in Hawkins County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #909 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #27 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 56,718, the population has grown by 2,841 (+5%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 487.1 square miles of land, that is 122 people per square mile (47 per km²), placing Hawkins County #865 nationally for density and #29 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 5.2 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 Hawkins County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Hawkins County. Together they are home to 23,095 people (38.8%); the other 36,464 (61.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Church Hill city, with 7,297 residents in the county. The county seat, Rogersville town, has 4,690 residents. By land, Kingsport city is the largest at 53.1 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Church Hill city grew fastest since then (+4.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Hawkins County is a central county of the Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 314,834 residents on 2,010.5 square miles of land; Hawkins County accounts for 24.2% of the land and 18.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #155 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #170 by population. It belongs to the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

376423764537660377113773137745378113785737869378733788137891

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 Hawkins County

Hawkins County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 1 in Virginia. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Greene County (622.2 mi²) and the smallest is Hamblen County (161.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Hawkins County forms a block of 3,049.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 16%.

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

Hawkins 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 85 areas the size of Hawkins County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.1 miles (35.5 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 Hawkins County?

Hawkins County has more land than 1,087 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 Hawkins County at #2,185 nationally by total area, 50 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 2.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.3 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 Hawkins 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.