Wasco County area

Population and density of Wasco County

The Census Bureau estimates that 26,310 people lived in Wasco County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,612 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #23 of 36 in Oregon. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 26,666, the population has declined by 356 (−1.3%), compared with +0.9% for Oregon as a whole.

With 2,381.1 square miles of land, that is 11 people per square mile (4.3 per km²), placing Wasco County #2,609 nationally for density and #25 in Oregon. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Oregon median is 25. Put another way, there are about 58 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 Wasco County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Wasco County. Together they are home to 17,341 people (65.9%); the other 8,969 (34.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is The Dalles city, with 15,745 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Wasco County is a central county of the The Dalles, OR Micropolitan Statistical Area. Wasco County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 2,381.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #64 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #468 by population.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Wasco County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

970019702197037970409705797058970639774197761

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 Wasco County

Wasco County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents, including 1 in Washington. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Klickitat County (1,871.6 mi²) and the smallest is Hood River County (522.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Wasco County forms a block of 13,352.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.8%.

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

Wasco County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.2 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 2 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Oregon’s county land could hold about 40 areas the size of Wasco County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 48.8 miles (78.5 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 Wasco County?

Wasco County has more land than 2,990 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 Wasco County at #249 nationally by total area, 17 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 0.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Wasco 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.