Preston County area

Population and density of Preston County

The Census Bureau estimates that 34,004 people lived in Preston County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,376 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #15 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 34,218, the population has declined by 214 (−0.6%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 648.8 square miles of land, that is 52 people per square mile (20 per km²), placing Preston County #1,500 nationally for density and #26 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 12 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 Preston County

10 incorporated places lie at least partly in Preston County. Together they are home to 6,796 people (20%); the other 27,208 (80%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Kingwood city, with 2,937 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Preston County is an outlying county of the Morgantown, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 141,995 residents on 1,008.9 square miles of land; Preston County accounts for 64.3% of the land and 23.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #280 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #305 by population.

ZIP codes

17 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Preston County; 14 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2628726374264052641026425264402644426519265202652426525265372654226547267052671626764

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 Preston County

Preston County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 2 in Maryland and Pennsylvania. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Fayette County (790.8 mi²) and the smallest is Taylor County (172.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Preston County forms a block of 3,859 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.8%.

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

Preston 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 37 areas the size of Preston County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.5 miles (41 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 Preston County?

Preston County has more land than 1,770 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 Preston County at #1,574 nationally by total area, 122 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 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Preston 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.