Wayne County area

Population and density of Wayne County

The Census Bureau estimates that 37,309 people lived in Wayne County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,283 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #14 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 38,987, the population has declined by 1,678 (−4.3%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 506 square miles of land, that is 74 people per square mile (28 per km²), placing Wayne County #1,221 nationally for density and #19 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 8.7 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 Wayne County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Wayne County. Together they are home to 9,697 people (26%); the other 27,612 (74%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Huntington city, with 3,501 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Wayne town, has 1,383 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Wayne County is a central county of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 8 county equivalents have 365,965 residents on 2,915.5 square miles of land; Wayne County accounts for 17.4% of the land and 10.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #102 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #156 by population. It belongs to the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

17 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Wayne County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2550425507255112551225514255172552425530255342553525555255702566925674256992570125704

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 Wayne County

Wayne County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 4 in Kentucky and Ohio. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Lawrence County (453.4 mi²) and the smallest is Boyd County (159.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Wayne County forms a block of 2,905.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.4%.

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

Wayne County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 48 areas the size of Wayne County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.5 miles (36.2 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 Wayne County?

Wayne County has more land than 1,169 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 Wayne County at #2,130 nationally by total area, 77 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 1.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2%. The two percentages are within 0.1 percentage points of each other. 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 Wayne 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.