McMinn County area

Population and density of McMinn County

The Census Bureau estimates that 57,404 people lived in McMinn County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #932 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #29 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 53,272, the population has grown by 4,132 (+7.8%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 430.1 square miles of land, that is 133 people per square mile (52 per km²), placing McMinn County #830 nationally for density and #28 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 4.8 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 McMinn County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in McMinn County. Together they are home to 22,068 people (38.4%); the other 35,336 (61.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Athens city, with 15,263 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Englewood town grew fastest since then (+8.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

McMinn County is a central county of the Athens, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 71,590 residents on 625.3 square miles of land; McMinn County accounts for 68.8% of the land and 80.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #342 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #101 by population. It belongs to the Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton, TN-GA-AL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in McMinn County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

373033730937322373253732937331373543737037826378463787437880

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 McMinn County

McMinn County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Monroe County (635.8 mi²) and the smallest is Meigs County (195.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, McMinn County forms a block of 2,614.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.5%.

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

McMinn County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.4 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 96 areas the size of McMinn County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.7 miles (33.4 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 McMinn County?

McMinn County has more land than 857 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 McMinn County at #2,434 nationally by total area, 69 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 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 McMinn 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.