Benton County area

Population and density of Benton County

The Census Bureau estimates that 221,722 people lived in Benton County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #327 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #10 of 39 in Washington. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 206,863, the population has grown by 14,859 (+7.2%), compared with +3.8% for Washington as a whole.

With 1,700.1 square miles of land, that is 130 people per square mile (50 per km²), placing Benton County #837 nationally for density and #9 in Washington. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Washington median is 39. Put another way, there are about 4.9 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 Benton County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Benton County. Together they are home to 183,554 people (82.8%); the other 38,168 (17.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Kennewick city, with 88,366 residents in the county. The county seat, Prosser city, has 6,654 residents. By land, Richland city is the largest at 42.5 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, West Richland city grew fastest since then (+18.3%).

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

Metropolitan area

Benton County is a central county of the Kennewick-Richland, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 324,334 residents on 2,941.7 square miles of land; Benton County accounts for 57.8% of the land and 68.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #100 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #166 by population. It belongs to the Kennewick-Richland-Walla Walla, WA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Benton County; 11 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

989309894499320993369933799338993459934699350993529935399354

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 Benton County

Benton County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 2 in Oregon. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Yakima County (4,294.5 mi²) and the smallest is Franklin County (1,241.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Benton County forms a block of 18,303.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 9.3%.

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

Benton County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.6 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.1 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Washington’s county land could hold about 39 areas the size of Benton County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 41.2 miles (66.4 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 Benton County?

Benton County has more land than 2,867 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 Benton County at #383 nationally by total area, 28 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 3.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.2 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 Benton 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.