Clatsop County area

Population and density of Clatsop County

The Census Bureau estimates that 40,926 people lived in Clatsop County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,194 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #19 of 36 in Oregon. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 41,073, the population has declined by 147 (−0.4%), compared with +0.9% for Oregon as a whole.

With 828.2 square miles of land, that is 49 people per square mile (19 per km²), placing Clatsop County #1,564 nationally for density and #15 in Oregon. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Oregon median is 25. Put another way, there are about 13 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 Clatsop County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Clatsop County. Together they are home to 26,615 people (65%); the other 14,311 (35%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Astoria city, with 9,838 residents in the county. By land, Warrenton city is the largest at 12.8 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Gearhart city grew fastest since then (+3.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Clatsop County is a central county of the Astoria, OR Micropolitan Statistical Area. Clatsop County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 828.2 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #250 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #314 by population.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Clatsop County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

970169710297103971109712197131971389714597146

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 Clatsop County

Clatsop County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents, including 1 in Washington. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Tillamook County (1,103.2 mi²) and the smallest is Wahkiakum County (262.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Clatsop County forms a block of 2,853 mi² of land, of which it holds 29%.

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

Clatsop County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.2 times as much. Oregon’s county land could hold about 116 areas the size of Clatsop County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 28.8 miles (46.3 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 Clatsop County?

Clatsop County has more land than 2,203 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 Clatsop County at #683 nationally by total area, 336 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 23.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 22.4 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 Clatsop 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.