Wayne County area

Population and density of Wayne County

The Census Bureau estimates that 116,758 people lived in Wayne County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #556 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #24 of 88 in Ohio. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 116,866, the population has declined by 108 (−0.1%), compared with +0.9% for Ohio as a whole.

With 555 square miles of land, that is 210 people per square mile (81 per km²), placing Wayne County #620 nationally for density and #28 in Ohio. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Ohio median is 120. Put another way, there are about 3 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 Wayne County

16 incorporated places lie at least partly in Wayne County. Together they are home to 55,868 people (47.8%); the other 60,890 (52.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Wooster city, with 27,115 residents in the county. By land, Norton city is the largest at 20.2 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Doylestown village grew fastest since then (+1.1%).

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

Metropolitan area

Wayne County is a central county of the Wooster, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. Wayne County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 555 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #394 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #19 by population. It belongs to the Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

44203442144421644217442304427044273442764428744606446114461444618446244462744638446454465944662446664466744676446774469144840

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 Wayne County

Wayne County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Stark County (574.9 mi²) and the smallest is Summit County (412.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Wayne County forms a block of 2,809.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.8%.

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

Wayne County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. Ohio’s county land could hold about 74 areas the size of Wayne County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.6 miles (37.9 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 Wayne County?

Wayne County has more land than 1,350 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 Wayne County at #1,983 nationally by total area, 111 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Wayne 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.