Pike County is a county in Illinois, United States, wedged between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers in the west-central part of the state. It had a population of 14,739 at the 2020 census and covers 849 square miles (2,200 km2) centred near 39\u00b037\u2032N 90\u00b053\u2032W — one of the largest counties in Illinois by land area.<\/p>\n
Pittsfield is the county seat and its postal code is 62363. The county has 3 incorporated cities, 12 incorporated villages, and a scatter of unincorporated crossroads communities. It runs on Central time (CDT\/CST).<\/p>\n
Pike County holds 30 named places on the map, three of them incorporated cities (Barry, Griggsville, and the county seat Pittsfield) and the rest a mix of incorporated villages and unincorporated hamlets that never grew past a store, church, and grain elevator. CDP = Census Designated Place; Unincorp. = unincorporated community with no city or village government.<\/p>\n
| Place<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Pop.<\/th>\n | ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsfield<\/td>\n | City · seat<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62363<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Barry<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62312<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Griggsville<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62340<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Pleasant Hill<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62366<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hull<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62343<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Baylis<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62314<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Kinderhook<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62345<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| New Salem<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62357<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| New Canton<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62356<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Rockport<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62370<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Pearl<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62361<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Perry<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62362<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Milton<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62352<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Chambersburg<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62323<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Nebo<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 62355<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Aladdin<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Atlas<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bedford<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bee Creek<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Detroit<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| East Hannibal<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| El Dara<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fishhook<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Florence<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hadley<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Martinsburg<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Montezuma<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| New Hartford<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| New Philadelphia<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Summer Hill<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Time<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Valley City<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n A handful of names from the old county roll — Greenpond, Horton, Independence, Maysville, Munger, Old Pearl, Quincy Junction, Seehorn, Shepherd, Shinn, Spencer, Straut, Sunny Hill, and Taylor — could not be independently confirmed as current place names and are omitted here rather than published unverified; several may be historical rural post offices no longer in local use. The old list also duplicated Rockport as two separate entries; the duplicate is dropped. “Pike,” listed in the old scrape, is not a distinct settlement — it is the county name itself.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nSmaller unincorporated communities without their own post office use the ZIP of the nearest town listed above.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nPike County occupies a broad, hilly peninsula of west-central Illinois bounded by two of the state’s major rivers — the Mississippi forms almost the entire western border, and the Illinois River runs along the east. Of its 849 square miles, 831 are land and 18 are water. The terrain is rolling to hilly, cut by bluffs and bottomland forest along both river corridors, with the interior given over to row-crop farmland.<\/p>\n Pike County borders Adams County<\/a> to the north, Brown County to the northeast, Scott County<\/a> and Morgan County<\/a> to the east, Greene County<\/a> to the southeast, Calhoun County<\/a> to the south, and across the Mississippi River to the west and southwest, Pike County, Missouri<\/a>, Ralls County, Missouri, and Marion County, Missouri<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pike County had 14,739 residents at the 2020 census, a decline from the prior decade. Pittsfield and Barry are the two largest communities. Median household income in the county runs well below the Illinois median of $80,306, typical of a farming county this size. Population density works out to roughly 17.7 people per square mile, among the more sparsely settled counties in the state.<\/p>\n Agriculture anchors the county’s economy — corn, soybeans, and cattle on the rolling upland ground, with grain elevators and farm-supply businesses clustered in Pittsfield, Barry, and Griggsville. Pittsfield is also home to Pike County’s hospital and its county government offices, the largest concentration of non-farm jobs in the county. Hunting and river recreation along the Mississippi and Illinois bottomlands, including waterfowl hunting leases, bring seasonal visitors.<\/p>\n Pike County was organized January 31, 1821, from territory taken out of Madison and Edwards counties, and named for Zebulon Pike, the army officer who led the 1806 Pike Expedition into the Louisiana Purchase before dying in the War of 1812 in 1813. At the time of its creation it was one of the largest counties ever formed in Illinois, later divided down to help create several neighboring counties.<\/p>\n The unincorporated community of New Philadelphia, in the county’s east, was founded in 1836 by Frank McWorter, a formerly enslaved man who purchased his own freedom and platted the town himself — the first town in the United States known to have been founded and legally registered by a Black American before the Civil War. The site is now a National Historic Landmark.<\/p>\n Interstate 72 crosses the northern part of the county through Pittsfield, connecting west to Hannibal, Missouri, and east to Jacksonville and Springfield; I-172 runs north out of Pittsfield toward Quincy.<\/p>\n The nearest commercial airport is Quincy Regional Airport, just northwest of the county in Adams County.<\/p>\n Where is Pike County, Illinois?<\/strong> What is the population of Pike County?<\/strong> How big is Pike County?<\/strong> What is the county seat of Pike County?<\/strong> How many towns are in Pike County?<\/strong> |