Fayette County area

Population and density of Fayette County

The Census Bureau estimates that 28,552 people lived in Fayette County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,532 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #75 of 88 in Ohio. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 28,942, the population has declined by 390 (−1.3%), compared with +0.9% for Ohio as a whole.

With 406.4 square miles of land, that is 70 people per square mile (27 per km²), placing Fayette County #1,258 nationally for density and #72 in Ohio. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Ohio median is 120. Put another way, there are about 9.1 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 Fayette County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Fayette County. Together they are home to 16,763 people (58.7%); the other 11,789 (41.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Washington Court House city, with 14,375 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Fayette County is a central county of the Washington Court House, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. Fayette County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 406.4 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #484 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #451 by population. It belongs to the Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Fayette County; 4 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4310643128431424314343145431534316045123451354516945335

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 Fayette County

Fayette County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Fayette County. The largest neighbor is Ross County (689.2 mi²) and the smallest is Clinton County (408.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Fayette County forms a block of 3,438.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.8%.

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

Fayette County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.5 times as much. Ohio’s county land could hold about 101 areas the size of Fayette County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.2 miles (32.4 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 Fayette County?

Fayette County has more land than 728 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 Fayette County at #2,564 nationally by total area, 70 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 percentage points lower. 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 Fayette 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.