Whitman County area

Population and density of Whitman County

The Census Bureau estimates that 48,512 people lived in Whitman County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,045 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #24 of 39 in Washington. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 47,971, the population has grown by 541 (+1.1%), compared with +3.8% for Washington as a whole.

With 2,159.3 square miles of land, that is 22 people per square mile (8.7 per km²), placing Whitman County #2,223 nationally for density and #26 in Washington. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Washington median is 39. Put another way, there are about 28 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 Whitman County

16 incorporated places lie at least partly in Whitman County. Together they are home to 42,735 people (88.1%); the other 5,777 (11.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Pullman city, with 33,756 residents in the county. The county seat, Colfax city, has 2,667 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Pullman city grew fastest since then (+2.6%).

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

Metropolitan area

Whitman County is a central county of the Pullman, WA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Whitman County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 2,159.3 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #74 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #236 by population. It belongs to the Pullman-Moscow, WA-ID Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

99004990179903399102991119911399125991289913099136991439914999158991619916399170991719917499176991799933399347

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 Whitman County

Whitman County shares a land border with 10 county equivalents, including 3 in Idaho. It has more land than 9 of them. The largest neighbor is Lincoln County (2,310.6 mi²) and the smallest is Asotin County (636.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Whitman County forms a block of 14,321.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.1%.

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

Whitman County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.1 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 2.2 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Washington’s county land could hold about 31 areas the size of Whitman County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 46.5 miles (74.8 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 Whitman County?

Whitman County has more land than 2,963 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 Whitman County at #287 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 0.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Whitman 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.