Taylor County area

Population and density of Taylor County

The Census Bureau estimates that 16,287 people lived in Taylor County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,081 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #35 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 16,703, the population has declined by 416 (−2.5%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 172.8 square miles of land, that is 94 people per square mile (36 per km²), placing Taylor County #1,039 nationally for density and #16 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 6.8 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 Taylor County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Taylor County. Together they are home to 4,831 people (29.7%); the other 11,456 (70.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Grafton city, with 4,529 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Taylor County is an outlying county of the Clarksburg, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 88,142 residents on 908.5 square miles of land; Taylor County accounts for 19% of the land and 18.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #208 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #53 by population. It belongs to the Fairmont-Clarksburg, WV Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Taylor County; 5 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

26330263472635426374264162642426431264352644026554

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 Taylor County

Taylor County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Taylor County. The largest neighbor is Preston County (648.8 mi²) and the smallest is Marion County (308.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Taylor County forms a block of 2,247.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 7.7%.

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

Taylor County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 6 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 139 areas the size of Taylor County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 13.1 miles (21.2 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 Taylor County?

Taylor County has more land than 185 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 Taylor County at #3,057 nationally by total area, 20 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 1.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.5 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 Taylor 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.