Baylor County area

Baylor County, Texas covers 901.1 square miles: 867.5 square miles of land and 33.6 square miles of water. Its county seat is Seymour. An estimated 3,472 people lived there in 2025.

Official Census measurements · GEOID 480232026 Gazetteer · retrieved September 27, 2026
Land area867.5 mi²
Water area33.6 mi²
Population (2025)3,472
People per mi²4

County outline

Generalized outline of Baylor County, Texas
2025 Census cartographic boundary, fitted to this frame. County maps are not at a common scale. The 2026 area measurements below come from the separate Gazetteer release. Map source and limitations.

Where Baylor County is located

Baylor County highlighted on a map of all U.S. county equivalents. About the maps

Area breakdown

Land accounts for 96.3% of Baylor County’s measured area and water for 3.7%. Its combined area converts to 2,333.8 square kilometers or approximately 576,684 acres.

Green: land · blue: water

MeasurementSquare milesSquare kilometersAcres
Land867.4812,246.765555,187.8
Water33.58886.99321,496.3
Total901.0692,333.758576,684.2

How Baylor County compares

By original Census land area, Baylor County ranks #178 of 254 in Texas and #946 of 3,222 nationally. National rankings include the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Its land area is 0.955 times the Texas county-equivalent median of 908.7 square miles. It accounts for 0.3% of the combined county land area in the state.

See the complete Texas ranking · What counts as a county equivalent?

Population and density of Baylor County

The Census Bureau estimates that 3,472 people lived in Baylor County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #3,000 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #211 of 254 in Texas. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 3,465, the population has grown by 7 (+0.2%), compared with +8.8% for Texas as a whole.

With 867.5 square miles of land, that is 4 people per square mile (1.5 per km²), placing Baylor County #2,904 nationally for density and #206 in Texas. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Texas median is 22. Put another way, there are about 160 acres of land per resident.

Estimated population, 2020–2025 · line scaled to this county’s own range
July 1202020212022202320242025
Estimate3,4613,4563,4663,4823,4823,472
Change—−5+10+160−10

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 Baylor County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Baylor County. Together they are home to 2,574 people (74.1%); the other 898 (25.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Seymour city, with 2,574 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Baylor County is not part of any metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area in the Office of Management and Budget’s July 2023 delineation; 1,306 other county equivalents are also outside one. These areas are built around an urban core of at least 10,000 people plus the counties tied to it by commuting, so counties outside them are generally rural.

ZIP codes

2 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Baylor County; 1 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

7636076380

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 Baylor County

Baylor County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Wilbarger County (970.9 mi²) and the smallest is Foard County (704.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Baylor County forms a block of 5,209.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.7%.

Map of Baylor County and the 5 county equivalents that border it Archer County, Texas: 903.3 mi² landThrockmorton County, Texas: 912.6 mi² landWilbarger County, Texas: 970.9 mi² landKnox County, Texas: 850.6 mi² landFoard County, Texas: 704.4 mi² land
Baylor County (dark) and its bordering county equivalents. Select a neighbor to open its profile. Drawn from the 2025 Census cartographic boundaries in an equal-area projection. How borders are determined.
Bordering county equivalentLand mi²Size vs. BaylorCompare
Wilbarger County970.91.1× largerCompare
Throckmorton County912.61.1× largerCompare
Archer County903.3about the sameCompare
Knox County850.6about the sameCompare
Foard County704.41.2× smallerCompare

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

Baylor County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.2 times as much. Texas’s county land could hold about 301 areas the size of Baylor County.

Land area: Baylor County and the closest-sized states
Baylor County867.5 mi²
Rhode Island1,033.9 mi²

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 29.5 miles (47.4 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 Baylor County?

Baylor County has more land than 2,276 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

Land area compared with the typical county equivalent
Baylor County867.5 mi²
Texas median908.7 mi²
National median604.5 mi²

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 Baylor County at #970 nationally by total area, 24 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 3.7%, 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 Baylor County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Land rankCounty equivalentLand mi²Comparison
#945Kennebec County, Maine867.5Compare
#946Baylor County, Texas867.5This county
#947Oakland County, Michigan867.4Compare

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.

Representative coordinates

The Census internal point is 33.618768, -99.208285. It represents a location inside the geography; it is not necessarily the centroid or the address of a courthouse.

Source and precision

U.S. Census Bureau, 2026 Gazetteer Files, Counties. Original ALAND: 2,246,764,164 m²; AWATER: 86,991,451 m². Rankings use ALAND; exact ties use ascending GEOID. Tables preserve Census-published square miles to three decimals, with conversions based on those values.

Download the official county source ZIP ↗ · Methodology

Common questions

How big is Baylor County?

Baylor County, Texas has 867.5 square miles (2,246.8 km²) of land and 33.6 square miles of water, for a total area of 901.1 square miles. It ranks #946 of 3,222 U.S. county equivalents by land area.

Is Baylor County the largest county in Texas?

No. Baylor County ranks #178 of 254 in Texas by land area. The largest is Brewster County, with 6,183.8 square miles of land.

What counties border Baylor County?

Baylor County shares a land border with Archer County, Throckmorton County, Wilbarger County, Knox County, and Foard County.

What is the population of Baylor County?

The Census Bureau estimates Baylor County had 3,472 residents on July 1, 2025, ranking #3,000 of 3,222 county equivalents. That is 4 people per square mile of land.

What is the county seat of Baylor County?

The county seat of Baylor County is Seymour.

Is Baylor County part of a metropolitan area?

No. Baylor County is outside every metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area in the July 2023 OMB delineation.

How many ZIP codes are in Baylor County?

2 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Baylor County, and 1 of them have most of their land inside the county. Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas approximate USPS ZIP Code areas.

How does Baylor County compare with U.S. states?

It has less land than every state. Rhode Island, the smallest, has 1.2 times as much land.

How many acres of land are in Baylor County?

The land measurement converts to approximately 555,188 acres. Including water, total area is approximately 576,684 acres. One square mile equals 640 acres.

Why might another source show a different area?

Check whether it reports land or total area, its Census vintage, and its rounding. Our guide explains how to reconcile county area figures.

Can this establish a property boundary?

No. Statistical measurements and generalized maps do not establish property lines. Consult the relevant local surveying or land-records authority.

Cite this county

Download the complete CSV or JSON dataset