Worcester County area

Population and density of Worcester County

The Census Bureau estimates that 54,459 people lived in Worcester County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #966 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #17 of 24 in Maryland. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 52,464, the population has grown by 1,995 (+3.8%), compared with +1.4% for Maryland as a whole.

With 468.3 square miles of land, that is 116 people per square mile (45 per km²), placing Worcester County #900 nationally for density and #19 in Maryland. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Maryland median is 335. Put another way, there are about 5.5 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 Worcester County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Worcester County. Together they are home to 18,833 people (34.6%); the other 35,626 (65.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Ocean City town, with 6,840 residents in the county. The county seat, Snow Hill town, has 2,237 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Berlin town grew fastest since then (+5.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Worcester County is a central county of the Ocean Pines, MD Micropolitan Statistical Area. Worcester County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 468.3 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #449 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #195 by population. It belongs to the Salisbury-Ocean Pines, MD Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Worcester County; 10 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

218042181121813218222182921841218422185121862218632186421872

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 Worcester County

Worcester County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 2 in Virginia and Delaware. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Sussex County (936.2 mi²) and the smallest is Somerset County (319.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Worcester County forms a block of 2,548 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.4%.

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

Worcester County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.2 times as much. Maryland’s county land could hold about 21 areas the size of Worcester County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.6 miles (34.8 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 Worcester County?

Worcester County has more land than 1,024 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 Worcester County at #1,454 nationally by total area, 744 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 32.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 31.4 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 Worcester 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.