Hampshire County area

Population and density of Hampshire County

The Census Bureau estimates that 24,105 people lived in Hampshire County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,695 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #24 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 23,079, the population has grown by 1,026 (+4.4%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 640.4 square miles of land, that is 38 people per square mile (15 per km²), placing Hampshire County #1,806 nationally for density and #34 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 17 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 Hampshire County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Hampshire County. Together they are home to 2,214 people (9.2%); the other 21,891 (90.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Romney city, with 1,767 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Hampshire County is an outlying county of the Winchester, VA-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 152,332 residents on 1,062.7 square miles of land; Hampshire County accounts for 60.3% of the land and 15.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #271 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #295 by population. It belongs to the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

2542225431254342543725444267042671026711267142672226755267572676126763268082681726823268512685226865

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 Hampshire County

Hampshire County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in Virginia and Maryland. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Hardy County (582.3 mi²) and the smallest is Morgan County (229.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Hampshire County forms a block of 2,615 mi² of land, of which it holds 24.5%.

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

Hampshire County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 38 areas the size of Hampshire County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.3 miles (40.7 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 Hampshire County?

Hampshire County has more land than 1,739 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 Hampshire County at #1,592 nationally by total area, 109 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 0.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 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 Hampshire 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.