County facts · Land area · October 21, 2026
Largest Counties in Kentucky by Area and Population
The largest Kentucky counties by land area and by 2023 population, plus the smallest, county seats and a link to each official parcel map.
Looking for the largest counties in Kentucky? Kentucky has 120 counties covering about 39,492 square miles of land, based on the Census Bureau's 2020 Gazetteer. The largest by land area is Pike County, at about 787 square miles, roughly 8.0 times the size of the smallest, Gallatin County (98 sq mi). Measured by people instead, the largest is Jefferson County, with about 772,144 residents in the Census Bureau's July 1, 2023 estimate.
The tables below rank the counties both ways. Each row links to the county's Platbookmapper page and straight to its official parcel viewer.
Kentucky counties at a glance
- Counties: 120
- Land area: about 39,492 sq mi, plus about 914 sq mi of water inside county lines
- Residents, 2023 estimates: about 4,526,154, or about 115 people per square mile of land
- Median county land area: about 306 sq mi
- With a verified public parcel viewer in our directory: 71 of 120 (1 of them through a statewide viewer)
The 10 largest Kentucky counties by land area
| # | County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | People per sq mi | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pike County | Pikeville | 787 | 55,973 | 71 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 2 | Christian County | Hopkinsville | 718 | 72,032 | 100 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 3 | Pulaski County | Somerset | 658 | 66,191 | 101 | Beacon (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 4 | Hardin County | Elizabethtown | 623 | 112,273 | 180 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 5 | Ohio County | Hartford | 587 | 23,626 | 40 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 6 | Breckinridge County | Hardinsburg | 570 | 21,124 | 37 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 7 | Logan County | Russellville | 552 | 28,283 | 51 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 8 | Graves County | Mayfield | 552 | 36,461 | 66 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 9 | Hopkins County | Madisonville | 542 | 44,929 | 83 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 10 | Warren County | Bowling Green | 542 | 142,229 | 263 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
Together these 10 cover about 16% of Kentucky's land area and hold about 13% of its residents.
The 10 most populous Kentucky counties
| # | County | Seat | 2023 pop. | Land (sq mi) | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jefferson County | Louisville | 772,144 | 381 | county web map |
| 2 | Fayette County | Lexington | 320,154 | 284 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| 3 | Kenton County | Covington, Independence | 171,321 | 160 | county web map |
| 4 | Warren County | Bowling Green | 142,229 | 542 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 5 | Boone County | Burlington | 140,496 | 246 | ArcGIS Web AppBuilder |
| 6 | Hardin County | Elizabethtown | 112,273 | 623 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 7 | Daviess County | Owensboro | 103,458 | 458 | ArcGIS Web AppBuilder |
| 8 | Madison County | Richmond | 96,735 | 437 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 9 | Campbell County | Alexandria, Newport | 93,702 | 151 | county web map |
| 10 | Bullitt County | Shepherdsville | 84,863 | 297 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
These 10 hold about 45% of Kentucky's residents in the 2023 estimates.
The 5 smallest Kentucky counties by land area
| County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallatin County | Warsaw | 98 | 8,792 | WTH GIS |
| Robertson County | Mount Olivet | 100 | 2,313 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| Carroll County | Carrollton | 129 | 10,987 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| Campbell County | Alexandria, Newport | 151 | 93,702 | county web map |
| Trimble County | Bedford | 152 | 8,607 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
Most and least crowded
- Most people per square mile: Jefferson County, about 2,028 (then Fayette County, 1,129, and Kenton County, 1,069)
- Fewest people per square mile: Hickman County, about 18 (then Cumberland County, 20, and Owsley County, 20)
Counties with the most water
The Census Bureau reports water separately from land. It counts lakes, reservoirs, rivers and, for coastal and Great Lakes counties, the water inside the county boundary.
- Lyon County: about 43 sq mi of water, 17% of its total area
- Trigg County: about 40 sq mi of water, 8% of its total area
- Marshall County: about 38 sq mi of water, 11% of its total area
Using these numbers in a land search
- Land area is not parcel count. A large rural county can hold fewer parcels than a small suburban one, so size alone says little about how busy its parcel map is.
- Search, don't scroll. In a big county, type an address, owner name or parcel number into the viewer's search box, where it has one, instead of panning across the map.
- Records follow the county line. Deeds, plats and tax bills are kept by the county where the parcel sits, so a tract that crosses a county line usually has a parcel number in each county.
- Rounded figures. Land and water areas are rounded to whole square miles. People per square mile is the 2023 estimate divided by land area.
Related guides
- Kentucky county GIS websites by viewer
- Kentucky landowner maps for hunting
- Kentucky PVA maps and parcel search
- Illinois–Kentucky border counties
- Indiana–Kentucky border counties
- Kentucky–Ohio border counties
- Kentucky–Tennessee border counties
More: All Kentucky counties on Platbookmapper
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer files, 2020 county land and water area.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, county totals, Vintage 2023 (July 1, 2023 estimates)
- Platbookmapper county GIS directory (live data file behind our county pages, pulled October 21, 2026) for each county's official parcel viewer.
- County seats: Wikidata (county seat property), cross-checked against Census place names.