Wicomico County area

Population and density of Wicomico County

The Census Bureau estimates that 106,899 people lived in Wicomico County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #594 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #14 of 24 in Maryland. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 103,596, the population has grown by 3,303 (+3.2%), compared with +1.4% for Maryland as a whole.

With 374.4 square miles of land, that is 286 people per square mile (110 per km²), placing Wicomico County #528 nationally for density and #15 in Maryland. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Maryland median is 335. Put another way, there are about 2.2 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Wicomico County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Wicomico County. Together they are home to 49,582 people (46.4%); the other 57,317 (53.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Salisbury city, with 33,845 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Delmar town grew fastest since then (+27.9%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Wicomico County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Wicomico County is a central county of the Salisbury, MD Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 131,872 residents on 694.2 square miles of land; Wicomico County accounts for 53.9% of the land and 81.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #323 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #319 by population. It belongs to the Salisbury-Ocean Pines, MD Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Wicomico County; 15 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

21801218042181021814218222182621830218372184021849218502185621861218652187421875

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Wicomico County

Wicomico County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 1 in Delaware. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Sussex County (936.2 mi²) and the smallest is Somerset County (319.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Wicomico County forms a block of 2,639.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.2%.

How big is Wicomico County compared with U.S. states?

Wicomico County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.8 times as much. Maryland’s county land could hold about 26 areas the size of Wicomico County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 19.4 miles (31.1 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Wicomico County?

Wicomico County has more land than 601 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Wicomico County at #2,602 nationally by total area, 19 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 6.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 5.3 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Wicomico County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.