New Madrid County, Missouri

New Madrid County
County
New Madrid County Courthouse
Location within the U.S. state of Missouri
Missouri's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 36°35′N 89°40′W / 36.59°N 89.66°W / 36.59; -89.66
Country	United States
State	Missouri
Founded	October 1, 1812
Named for	Madrid, Spain
Seat	New Madrid
Largest city	Portageville
Area
• Total	697 sq mi (1,810 km2)
• Land	675 sq mi (1,750 km2)
• Water	22 sq mi (60 km2)  3.1%
Population  (2020)
• Total	16,434
• Density	24/sq mi (9.1/km2)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional district	8th

New Madrid County (/ˈmædrɪd/ MAD-rid; Spanish: Condado de Nueva Madrid; French: Comté de New Madrid) is a county located in the Bootheel of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,434.^[1] The largest city is Portageville and county seat is New Madrid, located on the northern side of the Kentucky Bend in the Mississippi River, where it has formed an oxbow around an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky.^[2] This feature has also been known as New Madrid Bend or Madrid Bend, for the city.

The county was officially organized on October 1, 1812, encompassing most of present-day Arkansas. Named after Nuevo Madrid, a district located in the region, the area was under Spanish rule following France's cession of Louisiana after being defeated in the Seven Years' War. The Spanish named the district after Madrid, the capital of Spain.^[3]

The county includes a large part of the New Madrid Fault that produced the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes. This zone remains geologically active, and had continued to produce smaller earthquakes with some frequency.