Christian County covers approximately 564 square miles in Southwest Missouri and is bordered by Greene, Lawrence, Stone, Taney, Douglas and Webster Counties. Though Christian County is one of the fastest growing counties in the State of Missouri and is considered part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area (Greene, Christian, Dallas, Polk and Webster Counties), the southern part of the County is predominantly rural in character.

     The vast majority of the County is unincorporated (555.6 square miles). Incorporated communities include the Village of Saddlebrooke and the cities of Billings, Clever, Fremont Hills, Highlandville, Nixa, Ozark, and Sparta. Of these cities, Nixa and Ozark are the largest with Census 2000 populations of 18,829and 18,095 respectively. Saddlebrooke, which incorporated in 2003, is the smallest community with an estimated population of 15.

Christian County has experienced continuous and rapid growth since the 1970s, far outpacing the rate of growth for  the State of Missouri and the United States. The County’s rate of growth has been explosive since 1990, with  population increasing from 32,644 in 1990 to 54,295 in 2000, a 66.3 percent rate of growth. Migration  overwhelmingly accounts for the County’s rapid increase in population. During the 1990s, natural increase  (births- deaths)accounted for an increase of 3,493 persons or only 16 percent of the total population increase of 21,641 persons.