Mahoning County area

Population and density of Mahoning County

The Census Bureau estimates that 224,706 people lived in Mahoning County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #320 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #13 of 88 in Ohio. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 228,605, the population has declined by 3,899 (−1.7%), compared with +0.9% for Ohio as a whole.

With 411.5 square miles of land, that is 546 people per square mile (211 per km²), placing Mahoning County #320 nationally for density and #13 in Ohio. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Ohio median is 120. Put another way, there are about 1.2 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 Mahoning County

14 incorporated places lie at least partly in Mahoning County. Together they are home to 95,998 people (42.7%); the other 128,708 (57.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Youngstown city, with 58,831 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county).

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

Metropolitan area

Mahoning County is a central county of the Youngstown-Warren, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 423,678 residents on 1,029.1 square miles of land; Mahoning County accounts for 40% of the land and 53% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #275 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #134 by population. It belongs to the Youngstown-Warren-Salem, OH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

38 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Mahoning County; 28 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

4440144405444064440844412444254442944436444374444044442444434444444449444514445244454444604447144481444904450244503445044450544506445074450944510445114451244514445154455544601446094461944672

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 Mahoning County

Mahoning County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Pennsylvania. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Mercer County (672.5 mi²) and the smallest is Lawrence County (357.4 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Mahoning County forms a block of 3,653.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.3%.

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

Mahoning 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 99 areas the size of Mahoning County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.3 miles (32.6 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 Mahoning County?

Mahoning County has more land than 765 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 Mahoning County at #2,466 nationally by total area, 9 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 3.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.1 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 Mahoning 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.