Smith County area

Population and density of Smith County

The Census Bureau estimates that 20,981 people lived in Smith County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,832 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #67 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 19,906, the population has grown by 1,075 (+5.4%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 314.3 square miles of land, that is 67 people per square mile (26 per km²), placing Smith County #1,298 nationally for density and #54 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 9.6 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 Smith County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Smith County. Together they are home to 5,322 people (25.4%); the other 15,659 (74.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Carthage town, with 2,282 residents in the county. By land, Gordonsville town is the largest at 7.186 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Gordonsville town grew fastest since then (+7.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Smith 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; Smith County accounts for 5% of the land and 1% 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

15 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Smith County; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

370123703037057370873709037145371513718438547385483855238560385633856738569

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 Smith County

Smith County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Wilson County (571.1 mi²) and the smallest is Trousdale County (114.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Smith County forms a block of 2,321.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.5%.

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

Smith County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.3 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 131 areas the size of Smith County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17.7 miles (28.5 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 Smith County?

Smith County has more land than 446 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 Smith County at #2,797 nationally by total area, 21 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 3.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.2 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 Smith 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.