Missouri county map

How Missouri’s counties are laid out

Missouri has 114 counties and one independent city. The City of St. Louis separated from St. Louis County in 1876 and has since run its own affairs as a county-equivalent; the Census Bureau counts it as the 115th county-level unit, which is the figure used on this site. St. Louis County, whose seat is the suburb of Clayton, wraps around the city on its west and is now more than three times as populous as the city itself.

The original five counties of 1812 — St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid — were the French and Spanish colonial districts along the Mississippi. Settlement then moved up the Missouri River, and the “Boonslick” counties of Howard, Cooper, Boone and Callaway followed in 1816–1820. The Platte Purchase of 1836 added the six counties of the north-west corner (Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Holt, Nodaway and Platte), which is why the state’s straight western border bends out to the Missouri River north of Kansas City.

County names lean heavily on early American politicians and soldiers — Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Polk, Clay, Benton, Boone, Callaway, Cass, Dade, Dallas, Dent, Johnson, Lafayette, Lewis, Marion, Pike, Putnam, Ray, Warren, Washington, Wayne and Webster. Missouri is one of only a handful of states with counties named for other states: Texas and Oregon counties, both created in the 1840s. The state also has two counties named for saints of the French era, Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois, and a St. Clair County.

All 114 counties of Missouri and the City of St. Louis

Five county facts

• Largest by area: Texas County in the south-central Ozarks, seat Houston, about 1,180 square miles — named, like its seat, for the Republic of Texas in 1845. Shannon and Howell counties to its south are the next largest.
• Smallest by area: the City of St. Louis, about 62 square miles of land on the west bank of the Mississippi. Among true counties, Worth County on the Iowa line, seat Grant City, is the smallest at about 270 square miles, and is also the least populous county in the state with about 2,000 residents.
• Most populous: St. Louis County, seat Clayton, with just under 1 million people in 2020. Jackson County (seat Independence, but home to most of Kansas City) is second with about 717,000; St. Charles County is third and the fastest-growing large county. The City of St. Louis, at about 301,000, has fallen from over 850,000 in 1950.
• Least populous: Worth County, as above. Mercer, Schuyler, Scotland, Putnam and Knox counties along the northern border and Hickory, Reynolds and Carter in the Ozarks all have well under 10,000 people.
• Oldest and newest: St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, all organised in 1812, are the oldest. Worth County (1861) is the newest county; the City of St. Louis became an independent county-equivalent in 1876, the last change to the map. It is Missouri’s only independent city.

Reading the map

Press Streets and zoom in. The Mississippi River shapes the entire eastern boundary through 17 counties from Clark in the north-east to Pemiscot in the Bootheel; the Missouri River enters at Atchison County, forms the border with Nebraska and Kansas as far as Kansas City, then cuts east across the middle of the state through Jackson, Lafayette, Saline, Cooper, Boone, Callaway, Osage, Gasconade, Franklin and St. Charles counties to join the Mississippi just north of St. Louis. Counties north of the Missouri are level farm country laid out on the survey grid; those south of it are in the Ozarks, where boundaries wander along ridges and rivers. Jackson County contains most of Kansas City, but the city also spreads into Clay, Platte and Cass counties. The Bootheel — Dunklin, Pemiscot and New Madrid counties — hangs below the 36°30′ line that forms the rest of the Arkansas border. Missouri is entirely on Central Time.

Related maps

• Missouri map — cities, borders and rivers.
• Blank Missouri map and printable Missouri map.
• Jefferson City, the state capital, in Cole County; Kansas City, the largest city.
• Neighbouring county maps: Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska.
• West North Central states · the Midwest · Central Time Zone.
• Geography: Mississippi River, Missouri River, the Ozarks.
• All US county maps.