Putnam County area

Population and density of Putnam County

The Census Bureau estimates that 86,612 people lived in Putnam County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #692 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #17 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 79,874, the population has grown by 6,738 (+8.4%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 401.1 square miles of land, that is 216 people per square mile (83 per km²), placing Putnam County #617 nationally for density and #18 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 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 Putnam County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Putnam County. Together they are home to 47,332 people (54.6%); the other 39,280 (45.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Cookeville city, with 38,212 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Baxter town grew fastest since then (+35.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Putnam County is a central county of the Cookeville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 152,477 residents on 1,520.1 square miles of land; Putnam County accounts for 26.4% of the land and 56.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #107 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #6 by population.

ZIP codes

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

3850138503385053850638544385453854838564385743858238583

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 Putnam County

Putnam County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Cumberland County (681.3 mi²) and the smallest is DeKalb County (304.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Putnam County forms a block of 3,318.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.1%.

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

Putnam County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.6 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 103 areas the size of Putnam County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20 miles (32.2 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 Putnam County?

Putnam County has more land than 700 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 Putnam County at #2,590 nationally by total area, 68 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Putnam 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.