Brooke County area

Population and density of Brooke County

The Census Bureau estimates that 21,142 people lived in Brooke County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,826 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #28 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 22,557, the population has declined by 1,415 (−6.3%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 89 square miles of land, that is 237 people per square mile (92 per km²), placing Brooke County #590 nationally for density and #7 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 2.7 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 Brooke County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Brooke County. Together they are home to 10,166 people (48.1%); the other 10,976 (51.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Weirton city, with 3,646 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Wellsburg city, has 2,255 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Brooke County is a central county of the Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 112,468 residents on 579.8 square miles of land; Brooke County accounts for 15.4% of the land and 18.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #344 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #349 by population. It belongs to the Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville, PA-OH-WV Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Brooke County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

260032603026032260352603726058260622607026075

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 Brooke County

Brooke County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents, including 2 in Pennsylvania and Ohio. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Washington County (857 mi²) and the smallest is Hancock County (82.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Brooke County forms a block of 1,542.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 5.8%.

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

Brooke County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 12 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 270 areas the size of Brooke County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 9.44 miles (15.2 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 Brooke County?

Brooke County has more land than 129 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 Brooke County at #3,113 nationally by total area, 20 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 3.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2.5 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 Brooke 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.