Sherman County area

Population and density of Sherman County

The Census Bureau estimates that 2,051 people lived in Sherman County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #3,116 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #34 of 36 in Oregon. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 1,873, the population has grown by 178 (+9.5%), compared with +0.9% for Oregon as a whole.

With 823.6 square miles of land, that is 2.5 people per square mile (0.96 per km²), placing Sherman County #3,025 nationally for density and #30 in Oregon. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Oregon median is 25. Put another way, there are about 257 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 Sherman County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Sherman County. Together they are home to 1,322 people (64.5%); the other 729 (35.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Wasco city, with 457 residents in the county. The county seat, Moro city, has 403 residents. By land, Rufus city is the largest at 1.184 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Sherman County is not part of any metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area in the Office of Management and Budget’s July 2023 delineation; 1,306 other county equivalents are also outside one. These areas are built around an urban core of at least 10,000 people plus the counties tied to it by commuting, so counties outside them are generally rural.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Sherman County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

9702997033970399705097065

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Sherman County

Sherman County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents, including 1 in Washington. Each of them has more land than Sherman County. The largest neighbor is Wasco County (2,381.1 mi²) and the smallest is Gilliam County (1,204.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Sherman County forms a block of 6,281.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.1%.

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

Sherman County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.3 times as much. Oregon’s county land could hold about 117 areas the size of Sherman County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 28.7 miles (46.2 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 Sherman County?

Sherman County has more land than 2,196 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 Sherman County at #1,116 nationally by total area, 90 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 0.9%, 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 Sherman 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.