Scioto County area

Population and density of Scioto County

The Census Bureau estimates that 71,365 people lived in Scioto County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #786 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #36 of 88 in Ohio. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 74,004, the population has declined by 2,639 (−3.6%), compared with +0.9% for Ohio as a whole.

With 610.2 square miles of land, that is 117 people per square mile (45 per km²), placing Scioto County #892 nationally for density and #47 in Ohio. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Ohio median is 120. 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 Scioto County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Scioto County. Together they are home to 20,349 people (28.5%); the other 51,016 (71.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Portsmouth city, with 17,282 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Scioto County is a central county of the Portsmouth, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. Scioto County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 610.2 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #349 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #102 by population. It belongs to the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

22 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Scioto County; 14 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

45613456164562945630456364563845648456524565345656456574565945660456614566245663456714567745682456844569445699

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 Scioto County

Scioto County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Kentucky. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Adams County (583.9 mi²) and the smallest is Greenup County (344.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Scioto County forms a block of 3,335.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.3%.

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

Scioto County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.7 times as much. Ohio’s county land could hold about 67 areas the size of Scioto County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24.7 miles (39.8 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 Scioto County?

Scioto County has more land than 1,636 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 Scioto County at #1,691 nationally by total area, 105 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 1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Scioto 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.