Hancock County area

Population and density of Hancock County

The Census Bureau estimates that 27,729 people lived in Hancock County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,563 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #19 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 29,096, the population has declined by 1,367 (−4.7%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 82.6 square miles of land, that is 336 people per square mile (130 per km²), placing Hancock County #462 nationally for density and #3 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 1.9 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 Hancock County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Hancock County. Together they are home to 17,506 people (63.1%); the other 10,223 (36.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Weirton city, with 14,487 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, New Cumberland city, has 939 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Hancock 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; Hancock County accounts for 14.2% of the land and 24.7% 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

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Hancock County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

2603426047260502605626062

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Hancock County

Hancock County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 4 in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Each of them has more land than Hancock County. The largest neighbor is Washington County (857 mi²) and the smallest is Brooke County (89 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Hancock County forms a block of 2,403.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 3.4%.

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

Hancock County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 13 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 291 areas the size of Hancock County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 9.09 miles (14.6 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 Hancock County?

Hancock County has more land than 126 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 Hancock County at #3,117 nationally by total area, 21 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 6.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 4.9 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 Hancock 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.