Clark County area

Population and density of Clark County

The Census Bureau estimates that 532,119 people lived in Clark County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #141 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 39 in Washington. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 503,308, the population has grown by 28,811 (+5.7%), compared with +3.8% for Washington as a whole.

With 628.5 square miles of land, that is 847 people per square mile (327 per km²), placing Clark County #218 nationally for density and #2 in Washington. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Washington median is 39. Put another way, there are about 0.756 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 Clark County

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in Clark County. Together they are home to 291,363 people (54.8%); the other 240,756 (45.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Vancouver city, with 199,698 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Ridgefield city grew fastest since then (+55.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Clark County is a central county of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 7 county equivalents have 2,542,282 residents on 6,687.4 square miles of land; Clark County accounts for 9.4% of the land and 20.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #28 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #26 by population. It belongs to the Portland-Vancouver-Salem, OR-WA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

20 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Clark County; 18 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

9860198604986069860798629986429866098661986629866398664986659867198674986759868298683986849868598686

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 Clark County

Clark County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 2 in Oregon. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Skamania County (1,658.3 mi²) and the smallest is Multnomah County (431 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Clark County forms a block of 4,517.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.9%.

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

Clark County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. Washington’s county land could hold about 106 areas the size of Clark County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.1 miles (40.3 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 Clark County?

Clark County has more land than 1,693 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 Clark County at #1,559 nationally by total area, 30 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 4.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 3 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 Clark 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.