McDowell County area

Population and density of McDowell County

The Census Bureau estimates that 16,878 people lived in McDowell County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,047 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #33 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 19,123, the population has declined by 2,245 (−11.7%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 533.5 square miles of land, that is 32 people per square mile (12 per km²), placing McDowell County #1,956 nationally for density and #37 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 20 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 McDowell County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in McDowell County. Together they are home to 5,945 people (35.2%); the other 10,933 (64.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Welch city, with 3,389 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

McDowell County is not part of any metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area in the Office of Management and Budget’s July 2023 delineation; 1,306 other county equivalents are also outside one. These areas are built around an urban core of at least 10,000 people plus the counties tied to it by commuting, so counties outside them are generally rural.

ZIP codes

38 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in McDowell County; 34 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2460424622247472480124808248112481324815248162481724826248282483024831248362484324844248462484824850248532485524861248622486624868248712487224873248782487924881248842488724888248922489424895

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 McDowell County

McDowell County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in Virginia. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Tazewell County (518.8 mi²) and the smallest is Mercer County (419 mi²). Together with its neighbors, McDowell County forms a block of 2,896.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.4%.

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

McDowell County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 45 areas the size of McDowell County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.1 miles (37.2 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 McDowell County?

McDowell County has more land than 1,267 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 McDowell County at #2,056 nationally by total area, 101 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 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 McDowell 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.