Morrow County area

Population and density of Morrow County

The Census Bureau estimates that 12,602 people lived in Morrow County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,316 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #29 of 36 in Oregon. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 12,184, the population has grown by 418 (+3.4%), compared with +0.9% for Oregon as a whole.

With 2,030.5 square miles of land, that is 6.2 people per square mile (2.4 per km²), placing Morrow County #2,796 nationally for density and #27 in Oregon. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Oregon median is 25. Put another way, there are about 103 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 Morrow County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Morrow County. Together they are home to 8,228 people (65.3%); the other 4,374 (34.7%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Boardman city, with 4,495 residents in the county. The county seat, Heppner city, has 1,128 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Boardman city grew fastest since then (+17.4%).

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

Metropolitan area

Morrow County is an outlying county of the Hermiston-Pendleton, OR Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 93,721 residents on 5,246 square miles of land; Morrow County accounts for 38.7% of the land and 13.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #18 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #44 by population.

ZIP codes

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Morrow County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

97818978269783697838978399784397844

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 Morrow County

Morrow County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Washington. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Grant County (4,527.8 mi²) and the smallest is Gilliam County (1,204.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Morrow County forms a block of 16,266.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.5%.

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

Morrow County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 2.4 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Oregon’s county land could hold about 47 areas the size of Morrow County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 45.1 miles (72.5 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 Morrow County?

Morrow County has more land than 2,942 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 Morrow County at #311 nationally by total area, 31 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 0.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Morrow 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.