McLennan County area

Population and density of McLennan County

The Census Bureau estimates that 272,020 people lived in McLennan County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #275 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #21 of 254 in Texas. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 260,588, the population has grown by 11,432 (+4.4%), compared with +8.8% for Texas as a whole.

With 1,036.7 square miles of land, that is 262 people per square mile (101 per km²), placing McLennan County #557 nationally for density and #29 in Texas. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Texas median is 22. Put another way, there are about 2.4 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 McLennan County

21 incorporated places lie at least partly in McLennan County. Together they are home to 227,279 people (83.6%); the other 44,741 (16.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Waco city, with 147,788 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, McGregor city grew fastest since then (+18.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

McLennan County is a central county of the Waco, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 308,807 residents on 2,785.2 square miles of land; McLennan County accounts for 37.2% of the land and 88.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #109 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #172 by population.

ZIP codes

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

7652476557765617662176622766247663076633766387664076643766547665576657766647667376682766897669176701767047670576706767077670876710767117671276798

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 McLennan County

McLennan County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Bell County (1,053.8 mi²) and the smallest is Falls County (765.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, McLennan County forms a block of 6,755.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.3%.

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

McLennan County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.9 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Texas’s county land could hold about 252 areas the size of McLennan County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 32.2 miles (51.8 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 McLennan County?

McLennan County has more land than 2,583 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 McLennan County at #709 nationally by total area, 70 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 2.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 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 McLennan 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.