Kentucky’s Smallest County Is Also Its Least Populated While Its Largest Covers Nearly 800 Square Miles

In the fourth grade, we spent about three weeks studying Kentucky, and I loved it. Suddenly everything about my home state became interesting to me. That fascination remains intact to this day.

What Are the Smallest and Largest Counties in Kentucky?

I was particularly engaged, as I always have been, with the numbers. I'm talking about population. We focused on the largest and smallest counties by population, as well as the largest and smallest by area. Yep, I'm a numbers nerd. The largest counties in area and population are different, but the smallest in both categories is the same county.

Robertson County

Robertson County, a little more than 50 miles northeast of Lexington, is unique in that it is both the smallest Kentucky county in area (99.91 square miles) and the least populous county (2,193 per the 2020 census). Named after Kentucky Congressman George Robertson, its county seat is Mount Olivet (population 347), but it does show up three times on the National Register of Historic Places for the following reasons...

The Johnson Creek Covered Bridge in Blue Lick State Park

The Thomas Metcalfe House

The Robertson County Courthouse

And now, at the other end of the scale...

Pike County, Kentucky

With a land area of 789 square miles, Pike County covers more terrain than any other Kentucky county. It's more than half the size of the state of Rhode Island and has a population of 58,669. Named after General Zebulon Pike, just like its governmental seat of Pikeville, Pike County is where you'll find the Dueling Barrels Brewery & Distillery, which gets rave reviews even when the main floor is closed.

And you simply cannot leave Pike County without digging into the legendary Hatfield/McCoy feud.

The Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum and Bob Amos Park are also well worth your time, as are the Appalachian Mountains. In Pike County, you're surrounded by their majesty. Soak it in.

The Most Populous County in Kentucky

I don't think you need a teacher or professor to inform you that Jefferson County is Kentucky's most populous county. Thanks to it being almost completely consumed by Louisville, Kentucky's largest city, Jefferson County has a population of 782,969, according to the 2020 census. According to 2024 estimates, that number would rank it 47th if it were a state, just ahead of Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming.

But don't forget. In between Pike County and Robertson County, there are 118 other counties in Kentucky. I'd imagine they're also worth our attention.