Berkeley County area

Population and density of Berkeley County

The Census Bureau estimates that 139,522 people lived in Berkeley County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #486 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #2 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 122,073, the population has grown by 17,449 (+14.3%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 321.1 square miles of land, that is 434 people per square mile (168 per km²), placing Berkeley County #384 nationally for density and #1 in West Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the West Virginia median is 45. Put another way, there are about 1.5 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 Berkeley County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Berkeley County. Together they are home to 19,509 people (14%); the other 120,013 (86%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Martinsburg city, with 19,211 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Berkeley County is a central county of the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 315,280 residents on 1,008 square miles of land; Berkeley County accounts for 31.9% of the land and 44.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #281 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #168 by population. It belongs to the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Berkeley County; 10 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

254012540325404254052541325419254202542125427254282543025443

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 Berkeley County

Berkeley County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 2 in Maryland and Virginia. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Washington County (457.8 mi²) and the smallest is Jefferson County (209.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Berkeley County forms a block of 1,630.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.7%.

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

Berkeley County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.2 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 75 areas the size of Berkeley County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17.9 miles (28.8 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 Berkeley County?

Berkeley County has more land than 464 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 Berkeley County at #2,804 nationally by total area, 46 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 0.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 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 Berkeley 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.