Kanawha County area

Population and density of Kanawha County

The Census Bureau estimates that 172,381 people lived in Kanawha County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #412 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #1 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 180,733, the population has declined by 8,352 (−4.6%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 901.7 square miles of land, that is 191 people per square mile (74 per km²), placing Kanawha County #653 nationally for density and #9 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 3.3 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 Kanawha County

16 incorporated places lie at least partly in Kanawha County. Together they are home to 89,669 people (52%); the other 82,712 (48%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Charleston city, with 46,117 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Kanawha County is a central county of the Charleston, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 200,170 residents on 1,746.1 square miles of land; Kanawha County accounts for 51.6% of the land and 86.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #180 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #237 by population. It belongs to the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

48 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Kanawha County; 44 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

250032501525025250352503625039250452505425061250642506725071250752508325086251022510325107251102511225124251262513225134251362514325156251602516225177252012520225214252482530125302253032530425305253062530925311253122531325314253152532025387

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 Kanawha County

Kanawha County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Fayette County (662 mi²) and the smallest is Clay County (342 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Kanawha County forms a block of 4,743.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 19%.

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

Kanawha County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.1 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 27 areas the size of Kanawha County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 30 miles (48.3 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 Kanawha County?

Kanawha County has more land than 2,378 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 Kanawha County at #927 nationally by total area, 83 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 1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.1 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 Kanawha 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.