Rutherford County area

Population and density of Rutherford County

The Census Bureau estimates that 386,352 people lived in Rutherford County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #200 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 341,482, the population has grown by 44,870 (+13.1%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 619.5 square miles of land, that is 624 people per square mile (241 per km²), placing Rutherford County #280 nationally for density and #5 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 1 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 Rutherford County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Rutherford County. Together they are home to 277,609 people (71.9%); the other 108,743 (28.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Murfreesboro city, with 171,178 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Smyrna town grew fastest since then (+19.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Rutherford 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; Rutherford County accounts for 9.8% of the land and 17.6% 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

20 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Rutherford County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3701437020370373704637060370853708637090371183712237127371283712937130371323713537149371533716737180

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 Rutherford County

Rutherford County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Williamson County (582.9 mi²) and the smallest is Cannon County (265.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Rutherford County forms a block of 3,820.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.2%.

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

Rutherford County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.7 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 67 areas the size of Rutherford County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.9 miles (40.1 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 Rutherford County?

Rutherford County has more land than 1,667 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 Rutherford County at #1,655 nationally by total area, 100 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 0.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 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 Rutherford 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.