Sullivan County area

Population and density of Sullivan County

The Census Bureau estimates that 163,759 people lived in Sullivan County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #431 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #10 of 95 in Tennessee. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 158,146, the population has grown by 5,613 (+3.5%), compared with +5.8% for Tennessee as a whole.

With 413.5 square miles of land, that is 396 people per square mile (153 per km²), placing Sullivan County #411 nationally for density and #11 in Tennessee. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Tennessee median is 76. Put another way, there are about 1.6 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 Sullivan County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Sullivan County. Together they are home to 85,492 people (52.2%); the other 78,267 (47.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Kingsport city, with 54,660 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Bristol city grew fastest since then (+3.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Sullivan 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; Sullivan County accounts for 20.6% of the land and 52% 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 Sullivan County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

376173761837620376563765937660376633766437665376863769437857

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 Sullivan County

Sullivan County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 3 in Virginia. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Washington County (561.2 mi²) and the smallest is Bristol city (12.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Sullivan County forms a block of 2,976.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.9%.

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

Sullivan County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.5 times as much. Tennessee’s county land could hold about 100 areas the size of Sullivan County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.3 miles (32.7 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 Sullivan County?

Sullivan County has more land than 777 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 Sullivan County at #2,448 nationally by total area, 3 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 3.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.6 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 Sullivan 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.