Ellis County, Texas

Ellis County is a county in Texas, United States, about 30 miles south of Dallas via Interstate
35E and Interstate 45. It had a population of 192,455 at the 2020 census, an estimated 240,867 by
2025, and covers 952 square miles (2,470 km2) centred near 32°21′N 96°47′W.

Waxahachie is the county seat and the largest city entirely within the county; its postal code is 75165. The county holds 15 cities, 5 incorporated towns and 1 census-designated place, plus 10
unincorporated communities, and it runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code is 48139.

Towns & Villages in Ellis County

Ellis County has 31 named places on record: 15 incorporated cities, 5 incorporated towns, one
census designated place (Bristol), and 10 unincorporated communities with no local government of
their own. Seven of the incorporated cities — Cedar Hill, Ferris, Glenn Heights, Grand Prairie,
Mansfield, Ovilla and Venus — extend across a county line, so most of each one’s population
lives outside Ellis County even where the population figure below is citywide.

Grand Prairie’s and Mansfield’s totals above are citywide — both cities sit
mostly in Tarrant and Dallas Counties, with only a small southern or eastern edge reaching into
Ellis. Cedar Hill is the same pattern: most of it is in Dallas County, and only its southern tip
crosses into Ellis. Glenn Heights, Ovilla and Ferris are more evenly split, and Venus straddles
the Ellis–Johnson County line. Auburn, Avalon, Crisp, Forreston, Ike, India, Rankin,
Rockett, Telico and Trumbull have no incorporated government, no population figure of their own,
and no ZIP separate from a neighboring town’s.

ZIP Codes

• 75165, 75167, 75168 — Waxahachie
• 75119, 75120 — Ennis (75119 also covers Bristol)
• 76065 — Midlothian
• 75154 — Red Oak, Oak Leaf, Glenn Heights and Ovilla share this ZIP
• 75125 — Ferris
• 76084 — Venus
• 75101 — Bardwell
• 76064 — Maypearl
• 76651 — Italy
• 75152 — Palmer
• 76670 — Milford

Grand Prairie, Mansfield and Cedar Hill use ZIP codes administered from their home post offices
outside Ellis County. Pecan Hill, Garrett and Alma have no ZIP of their own; mail there is
delivered under Red Oak’s, Ennis’s or a neighboring town’s code, and the ten
unincorporated communities are the same way.

Geography

Ellis County sits in the Blackland Prairie belt of north-central Texas, a band of dark,
clay-rich soil that made the county one of the nation’s leading cotton producers in the
early 1900s. Of its 952 square miles, 936 are land and 16 are water, about 1.7 percent. The
county has no single dominant lake; Bardwell Lake, a Corps of Engineers reservoir near the city of
Bardwell, is the largest body of water and supplies flood control and recreation for the
southeastern part of the county.

Dallas County borders Ellis to the north, Kaufman County to the northeast, Henderson County to
the east, Navarro County to the south, Hill County to the southwest, Johnson County to the west
and Tarrant County to the northwest. Dallas
County, Kaufman County, Henderson County, Navarro County, Hill County, Johnson County and Tarrant County all border Ellis directly.

Demographics

Ellis County had a population of 192,455 at the 2020 census, and the latest Census Bureau
estimate puts the county near 240,867 residents by 2025, growth driven by Dallas-Fort Worth
suburban expansion along the Interstate 35E corridor. Waxahachie and Midlothian are the two
largest communities wholly inside the county, together holding more than a third of its
population. Median household income runs $99,595 (2024), well above Texas’s statewide
figure of $75,780 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to roughly 206 people per square mile
of land, moderate for a Dallas-Fort Worth exurban county and rising quickly as new subdivisions
fill in around Midlothian and Red Oak.

Economy & Local Life

Manufacturing employs the most workers in the county, about 13,012 people, followed closely by
retail trade at 12,908 and educational services at 11,732. Midlothian anchors much of that
manufacturing base — three cement plants and Gerdau Ameristeel’s steel mill sit in and
around the city, making Midlothian one of the largest cement-producing centers in North Texas.
Waxahachie’s major employers include Owens Corning and Georgia-Pacific, alongside healthcare
and school-district jobs. Red Oak became home to a $600 million Google data center campus
announced in 2023, on 375 acres of the city. Ennis holds the county’s biggest annual event,
the National Polka Festival each Memorial Day weekend, a legacy of the area’s 19th-century
Czech settlers, alongside a springtime Bluebonnet Trails driving festival.

History

The Texas Legislature created Ellis County on 20 December 1849 and organized it the following
year, naming it for Richard Ellis, president of the 1836 convention that produced the Texas
Declaration of Independence. Waxahachie became the county seat in 1850.

The Houston and Texas Central Railroad reached Ennis in 1871, and cotton and rail commerce
drove the county’s early growth; by 1920 Ellis County ginned more cotton bales than any other
county in the United States. In 1988 the federal government chose a site near Waxahachie for the
Superconducting Super Collider, a particle accelerator project; Congress cancelled it in 1993
after roughly 14.6 miles of tunnel had already been bored, and the unfinished shaft remains under
the county today. Outlaw Clyde Barrow, of the Bonnie and Clyde gang, grew up partly near Telico in
eastern Ellis County.

Getting There

Interstate 35E crosses the county’s western half through Waxahachie and Red Oak, and
Interstate 45 crosses the east through Ennis and Palmer. US Routes 67, 77 and 287 and State
Highways 34 and 342 also run through the county.

• Dallas — about 30 miles north
• Fort Worth — about 45 miles northwest
• Corsicana — about 25 miles south
• Cleburne — about 28 miles west

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, roughly 30 miles north of Waxahachie, is the nearest
major commercial airport. No Amtrak station operates within the county; the nearest stop is Fort
Worth’s Texas & Pacific Station on the Texas Eagle line.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Ellis County located?
It sits in north-central Texas on the Blackland Prairie, about 30 miles south of Dallas, bordered
by Dallas, Kaufman, Henderson, Navarro, Hill, Johnson and Tarrant Counties.

What is the population of Ellis County?
192,455 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 240,867.

How big is Ellis County?
952 square miles (2,470 km2), of which 936 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Ellis County?
Waxahachie, incorporated in 1871, is the county seat and largest city wholly inside the county.

How many towns and cities are in Ellis County?
Twenty incorporated cities and towns — including Waxahachie, Ennis, Midlothian and Red
Oak — plus the Bristol CDP and ten unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does Ellis County use?
75165, 75167 and 75168 for Waxahachie; 75119 and 75120 for Ennis; 76065 for Midlothian; and
smaller codes such as 75101, 76064, 76084, 76651, 75152 and 76670 for the county’s other
towns.

What is Ellis County known for?
Cotton and cement — it led the country in cotton ginning by 1920 and Midlothian remains a
major cement-manufacturing center today, plus the unfinished Superconducting Super Collider
tunnel near Waxahachie.

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