Wood County area

Population and density of Wood County

The Census Bureau estimates that 82,385 people lived in Wood County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #719 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 55 in West Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 84,300, the population has declined by 1,915 (−2.3%), compared with −1.5% for West Virginia as a whole.

With 366.5 square miles of land, that is 225 people per square mile (87 per km²), placing Wood County #603 nationally for density and #8 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 2.8 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 Wood County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Wood County. Together they are home to 42,641 people (51.8%); the other 39,744 (48.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Parkersburg city, with 28,593 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Wood County is a central county of the Parkersburg-Vienna, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 87,264 residents on 599 square miles of land; Wood County accounts for 61.2% of the land and 94.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #338 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #379 by population. It belongs to the Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna, WV-OH Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

13 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Wood County; 11 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

26101261042610526133261422614326150261642616926180261812618426187

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 Wood County

Wood County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 3 in Ohio. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Washington County (632.3 mi²) and the smallest is Pleasants County (130.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Wood County forms a block of 3,211.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.4%.

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

Wood County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.8 times as much. West Virginia’s county land could hold about 66 areas the size of Wood County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 19.1 miles (30.8 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 Wood County?

Wood County has more land than 582 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 Wood County at #2,669 nationally by total area, 29 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 2.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.6 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 Wood 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.