Burleson County area

Population and density of Burleson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 20,549 people lived in Burleson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,858 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #120 of 254 in Texas. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 17,639, the population has grown by 2,910 (+16.5%), compared with +8.8% for Texas as a whole.

With 659.1 square miles of land, that is 31 people per square mile (12 per km²), placing Burleson County #1,971 nationally for density and #106 in Texas. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Texas median is 22. Put another way, there are about 21 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 Burleson County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Burleson County. Together they are home to 7,048 people (34.3%); the other 13,501 (65.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Caldwell city, with 4,970 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Caldwell city grew fastest since then (+24.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Burleson County is an outlying county of the College Station-Bryan, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 287,476 residents on 2,100.4 square miles of land; Burleson County accounts for 31.4% of the land and 7.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #151 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #176 by population.

ZIP codes

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Burleson County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

76556765677783677852778637787877879

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 Burleson County

Burleson County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Milam County (1,016.4 mi²) and the smallest is Brazos County (586.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Burleson County forms a block of 4,350 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.2%.

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

Burleson County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. Texas’s county land could hold about 396 areas the size of Burleson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.7 miles (41.3 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 Burleson County?

Burleson County has more land than 1,799 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 Burleson County at #1,505 nationally by total area, 82 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 2.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.5 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 Burleson 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.