Washington county map

How Washington’s counties are laid out

Washington’s 39 counties cover 71,298 square miles, an average of about 1,830 square miles each. The oldest were drawn before Washington existed: the provisional government of Oregon created Vancouver County (renamed Clark) and Lewis County in 1845 to cover everything north of the Columbia, and Oregon Territory added Pacific, Thurston, King, Pierce, Jefferson and Island counties in 1851–1852. Washington Territory, separated in 1853, subdivided the rest as the Puget Sound lumber towns, the Walla Walla wheat country and the Columbia Basin filled in. The last two, Benton (1905) and Pend Oreille (1911), completed the map.

The names form a roll-call of the Northwest: Native peoples and words (Clallam, Chelan, Cowlitz, Kitsap, Kittitas, Klickitat, Okanogan, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Spokane, Wahkiakum, Walla Walla, Whatcom, Yakima), explorers and early figures (Lewis, Clark, Whitman, Stevens, Jefferson, Franklin, Pierce), and Washington politicians (Ferry, Garfield, Grant, Lincoln, Mason, Thurston, Douglas). King County was named in 1852 for Vice-President William R. King; in 1986 the county council re-dedicated the name to Martin Luther King Jr., made official by the state in 2005.

Counties are governed by three-member commissions, or by councils under home-rule charters in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Whatcom, Clallam, Clark and San Juan counties. Washington has no independent cities and no consolidated city-counties. Olympia, the capital, is the seat of Thurston County at the southern tip of Puget Sound.

All 39 counties of Washington

Five county facts

• Largest by area: Okanogan County, seat Okanogan, about 5,270 square miles from the Cascade crest to the Okanogan Highlands along the British Columbia line. Yakima, Chelan, Grant and King counties are also above 2,100 square miles.
• Smallest by area: San Juan County, seat Friday Harbor, about 175 square miles of land spread across the San Juan Islands — reachable only by ferry or air. Island County, on Whidbey and Camano islands, is next.
• Most populous: King County, seat Seattle, with about 2.27 million people in 2020 — nearly 30 percent of the state’s 7,705,281. Pierce (Tacoma) and Snohomish (Everett) counties follow with about 920,000 and 830,000; Spokane County is the largest east of the Cascades at about 540,000.
• Least populous: Garfield County, seat Pomeroy, in the wheat country of the south-east, with about 2,300 people. Columbia, Wahkiakum and Ferry counties are also under 8,000.
• Oldest and newest: Clark County (Vancouver) and Lewis County (Chehalis), both created in 1845 under Oregon’s provisional government, are the oldest. Pend Oreille County (Newport), split from Stevens in 1911, is the newest. Washington has no independent cities.

Reading the map

Press Streets and zoom in on the highlighted state to see county lines. The Cascade Range splits the state, and the counties reflect it: the twelve counties around Puget Sound and the coast are small, wet and crowded, while the counties east of the crest are large, dry and mostly given over to wheat, orchards and rangeland. Several counties straddle the mountains — Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, King, Pierce, Lewis and Skamania all run from lowland up to the crest. The Columbia River forms the Oregon border from Wallula to the Pacific and bends north through the middle of the state, giving Douglas, Grant and Benton counties their curved edges; the Snake River separates Whitman and Franklin from the counties to the south. The whole state keeps Pacific Time.

Related maps

• Washington map — cities, borders and geography.
• Blank Washington map and printable Washington map.
• Olympia, the state capital, in Thurston County; Seattle in King County.
• Neighbouring county maps: Oregon, Idaho.
• Pacific states · Pacific Northwest · Pacific Time Zone.
• Geography: Cascade Range, Columbia River, Snake River, US coastlines.
• All US county maps.