Spokane County area

Population and density of Spokane County

The Census Bureau estimates that 558,344 people lived in Spokane County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #129 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #4 of 39 in Washington. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 539,333, the population has grown by 19,011 (+3.5%), compared with +3.8% for Washington as a whole.

With 1,764.2 square miles of land, that is 316 people per square mile (122 per km²), placing Spokane County #490 nationally for density and #8 in Washington. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Washington median is 39. Put another way, there are about 2 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 Spokane County

13 incorporated places lie at least partly in Spokane County. Together they are home to 391,639 people (70.1%); the other 166,705 (29.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Spokane city, with 230,783 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Deer Park city grew fastest since then (+22.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Spokane County is a central county of the Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 608,012 residents on 4,241.3 square miles of land; Spokane County accounts for 41.6% of the land and 91.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #66 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #98 by population. It belongs to the Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d'Alene, WA-ID Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

48 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Spokane County; 40 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

990019900399004990059900699008990099901199012990139901499016990189901999020990219902299023990259902699027990299903099031990329903399036990379903999110991569917099201992029920399204992059920699207992089921299216992179921899223992249925199258

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 Spokane County

Spokane County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 3 in Idaho. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Stevens County (2,477.1 mi²) and the smallest is Benewah County (776.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Spokane County forms a block of 13,859.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 12.7%.

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

Spokane County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.7 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 38 areas the size of Spokane County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 42 miles (67.6 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 Spokane County?

Spokane County has more land than 2,884 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 Spokane County at #377 nationally by total area, 39 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% — 0.2 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 Spokane 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.