THE LAUREL COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Cumberland Plateau setting.
Laurel County has 433.7 square miles of land in Kentucky. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Laurel County: Cumberland Plateau, Plateau Escarpment, Dissected Appalachian Plateau.
Open low mountains and plateau edges form a landscape of wooded uplands and deeper ravines. Escarpments mark the transition toward both the Ridge and Valley and the Interior Plateau.
Regional context: Southwestern Appalachians ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Laurel County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Cumberland Plateau65.8%
- Plateau Escarpment33.6%
- Dissected Appalachian Plateau0.6%
Central Appalachians in Laurel County
A rugged, deeply cut plateau of sandstone, shale and related rocks supports extensive forest. High hills and low mountains distinguish this Appalachian landscape from smoother neighboring regions.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Laurel County
The atlas lists 4 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Laurel County, including London, Corbin, East Bernstadt. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Laurel County by land and water
The Census records 9.99 square miles of water within Laurel County, or 2.3% of its total area. That share is close to Laurel County’s 2.3%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Laurel County has 37.2 times the land area of nearby London city (11.7 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Clay County, Jackson County, Knox County, McCreary County, Pulaski County, Rockcastle County, Whitley County within Kentucky. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

