Stevens County area

Population and density of Stevens County

The Census Bureau estimates that 49,668 people lived in Stevens County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,031 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #22 of 39 in Washington. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 46,445, the population has grown by 3,223 (+6.9%), compared with +3.8% for Washington as a whole.

With 2,477.1 square miles of land, that is 20 people per square mile (7.7 per km²), placing Stevens County #2,324 nationally for density and #28 in Washington. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Washington median is 39. Put another way, there are about 32 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 Stevens County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Stevens County. Together they are home to 10,379 people (20.9%); the other 39,289 (79.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Colville city, with 5,116 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Chewelah city grew fastest since then (+9.8%).

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

Metropolitan area

Stevens County is an outlying 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; Stevens County accounts for 58.4% of the land and 8.2% 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

21 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Stevens County; 17 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

990069901399026990349904099101991099911099114991229912699129991319913799141991489915199157991679917399181

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 Stevens County

Stevens County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Lincoln County (2,310.6 mi²) and the smallest is Pend Oreille County (1,400.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Stevens County forms a block of 10,155.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 24.4%.

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

Stevens County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.3 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). Washington’s county land could hold about 27 areas the size of Stevens County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 49.8 miles (80.1 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 Stevens County?

Stevens County has more land than 3,003 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 Stevens County at #230 nationally by total area, 11 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 2.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.3 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 Stevens 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.