THE JEFFERSON COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Pre-Wisconsinan Drift Plains setting.
Jefferson County has 360.7 square miles of land in Indiana. 2 mapped landscape regions meet across Jefferson County: Pre-Wisconsinan Drift Plains, Outer Bluegrass.
Rolling glacial till plains are interrupted by end moraines and areas of older, more dissected deposits. The historical landscape had more tree cover than the Central Corn Belt to the west.
Regional context: Eastern Corn Belt Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Jefferson County intersects 2 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Pre-Wisconsinan Drift Plains72.4%
- Outer Bluegrass27.6%
Interior Plateau in Jefferson County
Open hills, irregular plains and tablelands are developed on limestone and other sedimentary rocks. Oak-hickory woodland, local prairie and cedar-glade settings contribute to this diverse inland plateau.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Jefferson County
The atlas lists 17 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Jefferson County, including Madison, Shelby, Graham. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Jefferson County by land and water
The Census records 2.31 square miles of water within Jefferson County, or 0.6% of its total area. That share is close to Jefferson County’s 0.6%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Jefferson County has 41.7 times the land area of nearby Madison city (8.64 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Clark County, Jennings County, Ripley County, Scott County, Switzerland County within Indiana. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

