Elkhart County, Indiana

Elkhart County is a county in Indiana, United States, about 15 miles east of South Bend in the
state’s far north. It had a population of 207,047 at the 2020 census, an estimated 208,774 by
2024, and covers 467.97 square miles (1,212.0 km2) centred near 41°36′N 85°52′W.

Goshen is the county seat; its postal code is 46526. The county holds 3 cities, 4 incorporated
towns and 14 unincorporated communities across 16 civil townships, and it runs on Eastern Time.
Its FIPS code is 18039.

Towns & Villages in Elkhart County

Elkhart County has 21 named places on record: 7 incorporated cities and towns, 2 census
designated places, and 12 smaller unincorporated communities with no local government of their
own. CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural communities
with no formal boundary.

Six names from the old list here could not be traced to any place record and are dropped:
Bainter Town, De Camp Gardens, East Lake Estates, Greenleaf Manor and Lake Grange. One entry that
looked like a duplicate, Jamestown, is not a duplicate at all — it is the official name of
the community better known locally as Jimtown, home of Jimtown High School in Baugo Township.
Elkhart and Goshen each straddle several townships (Elkhart spans Concord, Osolo, Cleveland,
Baugo, Jefferson and Washington; Goshen spans Elkhart, Concord, Jefferson and Harrison), so no
single township is listed for either. Nappanee sits partly in neighboring Kosciusko County; its
population figure above is citywide.

ZIP Codes

• 46514 — Elkhart (also covers Simonton Lake)
• 46515, 46516, 46517 — Elkhart (46516 and 46517 also reach into Dunlap)
• 46526, 46527, 46528 — Goshen (46526 also reaches into Dunlap)
• 46550 — Nappanee
• 46540 — Middlebury
• 46573 — Wakarusa
• 46507 — Bristol
• 46553 — New Paris
• 46543 — Millersburg
• 46517 — also covers Jamestown (Jimtown), in Baugo Township

Benton, Bonneyville Mills, Foraker, Garden Village, Locke, Midway, Nibbyville, Southwest,
Vistula and Waterford Mills have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered under the
nearest incorporated town’s code.

Geography

Elkhart County sits in Indiana’s far north on the edge of the St. Joseph River basin, mostly
flat to gently rolling farmland with hillier ground in the northeast corner. Of its 467.97 square
miles, 463.17 are land and 4.80 are water, about 1 percent — the St. Joseph River and the
Elkhart River, which joins it at the city of Elkhart, account for most of the county’s surface
water, along with Simonton Lake and the Little Elkhart River near Middlebury.

St. Joseph County, Indiana lies to the west, Marshall County to the southwest, Kosciusko County
to the south, Noble County to the southeast, LaGrange County to the east, and two Michigan
counties — St. Joseph County and Cass County — border the county to the north. St. Joseph County, Marshall County, Kosciusko County, Noble County, LaGrange County, St. Joseph County, Michigan
and Cass County, Michigan all
border Elkhart directly.

Demographics

Elkhart County had a population of 207,047 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts
the county near 208,774 residents. Elkhart and Goshen are by far the two largest communities,
together holding more than 40 percent of the county’s population. Median household income runs
$68,561 (2024), below Indiana’s statewide 2023 ACS figure of $69,477. Population density works
out to roughly 450 people per square mile of land. The county’s Amish and Mennonite population
was 11,006, or 5.3 percent of residents, at the 2020 census — one of the largest such
communities in Indiana.

Economy & Local Life

Manufacturing employs the most workers in the county, about 34,581 people, followed by health
care and social assistance at 11,258 and retail trade at 8,768. Elkhart and Middlebury are the
manufacturing centers: Forest River, Grand Design, Winnebago, Jayco and Coachmen RV all build
recreational vehicles in the county, which calls itself the RV Capital of the World. Elkhart was
also historically the Band Instrument Capital of the World, home to instrument makers now mostly
consolidated under Conn-Selmer. Elkhart’s Robert Young rail yards, run by Norfolk Southern, rank
among the largest freight classification yards in the world. Middlebury’s Culver Duck Farms is
the second-largest white Pekin duck producer in the United States. Tourism draws heavily on the
county’s Amish community: Das Dutchman Essenhaus near Middlebury and Amish Acres in Nappanee
each pull large annual visitor numbers. The county’s biggest annual event is the Elkhart County
4-H Fair in Goshen each July, one of the largest county fairs in the country.

History

The Indiana General Assembly organized Elkhart County on 1 April 1830, first seating government
at Dunlap before moving the county seat to Goshen. The name comes from the Miami-Illinois word for
“elk’s heart,” recorded by French traders as Coeur de Cerf in 1749, after an elk-heart-shaped
island once in the St. Joseph River.

On Palm Sunday, 11 April 1965, two F4 tornadoes tore through the county as part of a
Midwest-wide outbreak, killing 67 people and injuring 573, with Dunlap among the hardest-hit
communities. Amish and Mennonite settlement began in the 1840s around Middlebury and Nappanee and
grew into one of the largest such populations in the state, shaping the county’s farming,
furniture-making and tourism economy to this day.

Getting There

The Indiana Toll Road (I-80/I-90) crosses the county’s northern edge through Elkhart. US 6,
US 20, US 33 and US 131, along with several state roads, run through the county; no other
interstate crosses it.

• South Bend — about 15 miles west
• Fort Wayne — about 60 miles southeast
• Warsaw — about 25 miles south
• Kalamazoo, Michigan — about 40 miles northeast

South Bend International Airport, about 15 miles west of Elkhart, is the nearest major
commercial airport; Elkhart, Goshen and Nappanee each have their own municipal airfields for
general aviation. Amtrak’s Capitol Limited stops at Elkhart’s station four times daily,
connecting to Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Elkhart County located?
It sits in far northern Indiana, about 15 miles east of South Bend, bordered by St. Joseph,
Marshall, Kosciusko, Noble and LaGrange counties and two Michigan counties to the north.

What is the population of Elkhart County?
207,047 at the 2020 census, with a 2024 estimate near 208,774.

How big is Elkhart County?
467.97 square miles (1,212.0 km2), of which 463.17 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Elkhart County?
Goshen is the county seat; Elkhart, 10 miles to the northwest, is the county’s largest city.

How many towns and cities are in Elkhart County?
Three cities — Elkhart, Goshen and Nappanee — four incorporated towns —
Bristol, Middlebury, Millersburg and Wakarusa — two census designated places, Dunlap and
Simonton Lake, and a dozen smaller unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does Elkhart County use?
46514 through 46517 for Elkhart and Simonton Lake, 46526 through 46528 for Goshen, plus 46550
for Nappanee, 46540 for Middlebury, 46573 for Wakarusa, 46507 for Bristol, 46553 for New Paris
and 46543 for Millersburg.

What is Elkhart County known for?
Recreational vehicle manufacturing — the county calls itself the RV Capital of the World
— and its large Amish and Mennonite community around Middlebury and Nappanee.

More counties in this state: Towns
and villages in Indiana.