Kentucky Counties Map: Click All 120 Counties

How many counties are in Kentucky?

Kentucky has 120 counties. Only Texas and Georgia have more.

Kentucky has 120 counties, the third most after Texas and Georgia. Louisville and Jefferson County merged their governments in 2003. The capital, Frankfort, is in Franklin County, between Louisville and Lexington.

How Kentucky's counties were formed

Kentucky began as one county of Virginia, which split it into Jefferson, Fayette and Lincoln counties in 1780. Kentucky entered the Union in 1792 with nine counties and kept dividing them so that every resident could reach a courthouse and return in a day. McCreary County, created in 1912 on the Tennessee line, was the 120th and last.

Kentucky regions and the counties in each

Kentucky has six regions children can learn. The Bluegrass surrounds Lexington (Fayette), with horse farms in Woodford, Bourbon and Scott counties. The Eastern Coalfield is the mountain country of Pike, Harlan, Letcher and Perry counties. The Knobs ring the Bluegrass in a horseshoe of cone-shaped hills. The Pennyrile covers the south-central counties, including Warren (Bowling Green), where Mammoth Cave lies next door in Edmonson County. The Western Coalfield includes Daviess (Owensboro), and the Jackson Purchase is the far western tip, around McCracken (Paducah).

Notable places on the Kentucky county map

Black Mountain, the state's highest point at 4,145 feet, is in Harlan County on the Virginia line. Mammoth Cave, the longest known cave system in the world, lies under Edmonson, Hart and Barren counties. Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, where Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road crossed the mountains, is in Bell County, and Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, is in Louisville (Jefferson County).

Kentucky counties map: the biggest and smallest

Pike County is the largest county in Kentucky, with 787 square miles of land, about 2% of the state. Gallatin County is the smallest, at 98 square miles.

The smallest counties by land area are Gallatin County (98 sq mi), Robertson County (100 sq mi) and Carroll County (129 sq mi).

Which counties in Kentucky have the most people?

Jefferson County has the most people, about 793,881 in the Census Bureau's July 2024 estimate, or 17% of everyone in Kentucky. The three biggest counties together hold 28% of the state's 4,588,372 people. Robertson County has the fewest, about 2,382.

The most crowded is Jefferson County, with about 2,085 people per square mile. The emptiest is Hickman County, with about 18 people per square mile. Comparing the two is a quick way to show children that a big county on the map isn't always a big county in people.

What county is Frankfort in?

Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, is in Franklin County. Franklin County ranks 19th of 120 by population. Kentucky is called the Bluegrass State, and it became the 15th state in 1792.

Counties on the Kentucky border

Learning the edge of the map first gives children a frame to fill in. Kentucky shares a border with Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

How Kentucky's counties compare with other states

Kentucky ranks 36th among the 50 states in land area and 26th in population. Its average county covers about 329 square miles and holds about 38,236 people. Across the 50 states, the average county-level area covers about 1,139 square miles and holds about 109,381 people, so Kentucky's counties are smaller than usual in size. Small counties pack more names into the same space, so zooming in helps.

Landmarks for learning the counties of Kentucky

• Jefferson County (Louisville) sits on the Ohio River in the north.
• Fayette County (Lexington) is in the Bluegrass region in the middle.
• The Appalachian counties, including Pike, fill the eastern edge.
• The far western tip, the Jackson Purchase, lies between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers.

With 120 counties, work one region at a time: study it with names on, then take a Practice round and stop when you've found that group. Then print the Kentucky county map worksheet to check that it sticks on paper.

All 120 Kentucky counties

Every county on the map, A to Z, with its land area and July 2024 population estimate.

Kentucky geography for homeschoolers

Pair this map with the Southeast states and capitals quiz and the US states quiz. If you teach at home, see homeschooling in kentucky, and check kentucky school choice to see whether a program may help pay for Kentucky history and geography curriculum. Each program decides what it covers.