Malheur County area

Population and density of Malheur County

The Census Bureau estimates that 32,261 people lived in Malheur County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,428 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #20 of 36 in Oregon. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 31,577, the population has grown by 684 (+2.2%), compared with +0.9% for Oregon as a whole.

With 9,887.7 square miles of land, that is 3.3 people per square mile (1.3 per km²), placing Malheur County #2,959 nationally for density and #29 in Oregon. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Oregon median is 25. Put another way, there are about 196 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 Malheur County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Malheur County. Together they are home to 17,572 people (54.5%); the other 14,689 (45.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Ontario city, with 11,957 residents in the county. The county seat, Vale city, has 2,055 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Vale city grew fastest since then (+8.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Malheur County is a central county of the Ontario, OR-ID Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 60,085 residents on 10,294.6 square miles of land; Malheur County accounts for 96% of the land and 53.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #4 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #164 by population. It belongs to the Boise City-Mountain Home-Ontario, ID-OR Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

894219790197902979039790697907979089790997910979119791397914979179791897920

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 Malheur County

Malheur County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents, including 5 in Idaho and Nevada. It has more land than 7 of them. The largest neighbor is Harney County (10,134.5 mi²) and the smallest is Payette County (406.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Malheur County forms a block of 47,373.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 20.9%.

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

Malheur County has more land than 9 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Maryland (9,711 mi²), while West Virginia, the next larger state, has 2.4 times as much land (24,041.4 mi²). Oregon’s county land could hold about 9.7 areas the size of Malheur County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 99.4 miles (160 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 Malheur County?

Malheur County has more land than 3,197 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 Malheur County at #30 nationally by total area, 5 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Malheur 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.