West Virginia county map

How West Virginia’s counties are laid out

West Virginia’s 55 counties cover 24,230 square miles, an average of about 440 square miles each, and 50 of them are older than the state. They were created by Virginia, starting with Hampshire County in 1754 and Berkeley in 1772 in the Eastern Panhandle, then Monongalia, Ohio and Greenbrier along the western waters in 1776–1778, and successive subdivisions as settlers followed the Kanawha, the Monongahela and the Ohio. When the western counties broke away in 1861–1863 the new state simply kept Virginia’s county lines, and added only five more: Grant (1866), Mineral (1866), Lincoln (1867), Summers (1871) and Mingo (1895).

The names are a record of Virginia politics before 1863: colonial governors, English nobles and Revolutionary allies (Berkeley, Hampshire, Fayette), presidents (Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson, Harrison, Tyler, Taylor), and Virginia statesmen (Randolph, Marshall, Mason, Wood, Ritchie, Tucker, Upshur, Wetzel, Wirt). The post-1863 counties commemorate the Union side — Grant, Lincoln, Mineral for its coal, and Summers for a judge of the new state. Wyoming and Mingo, the two county names from Native words, are in the southern coalfields.

Each county elects a three-member county commission; there are no independent cities and no consolidated city-counties. Because the terrain is so rugged, many county seats are small river towns — Sutton, Grantsville, Franklin, Marlinton, Hamlin — and the courthouse is often the largest building for miles. Charleston, the capital, is the seat of Kanawha County on the Kanawha River.

All 55 counties of West Virginia

Five county facts

• Largest by area: Randolph County, seat Elkins, about 1,040 square miles of the Allegheny Mountains including much of Monongahela National Forest. Greenbrier, Pocahontas and Kanawha counties are next, each above 900 square miles.
• Smallest by area: Hancock County, seat New Cumberland, about 83 square miles at the very tip of the Northern Panhandle, wedged between Ohio and Pennsylvania on the Ohio River.
• Most populous: Kanawha County, seat Charleston, with about 180,000 people in 2020. Berkeley County in the Eastern Panhandle, seat Martinsburg, is second at about 122,000 and is the fastest-growing county in the state; Monongalia (Morgantown) and Cabell (Huntington) follow.
• Least populous: Wirt County, seat Elizabeth, on the Little Kanawha River, with about 5,200 people. Calhoun, Gilmer, Pendleton, Pocahontas and Tucker counties are also below 10,000.
• Oldest and newest: Hampshire County (Romney), created by Virginia in 1754, is the oldest — older than the United States and 109 years older than the state. Mingo County (Williamson), split from Logan in 1895, is the newest. West Virginia has no independent cities.

Reading the map

Press Streets and zoom in on the highlighted state to see county lines. The state’s odd shape gives it two panhandles: the narrow Northern Panhandle of Hancock, Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties squeezed between the Ohio River and Pennsylvania, and the Eastern Panhandle of Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan counties, which reaches to within 60 miles of Washington, DC. The Ohio River forms the entire border with Ohio along 13 counties from Hancock to Wayne; the Big Sandy and Tug Fork separate Wayne, Mingo and McDowell counties from Kentucky; and the Potomac and its North Branch mark the Maryland line. The counties in the central mountains are large and empty, those along the Ohio and Kanawha valleys smaller and more populous. The whole state keeps Eastern Time.

Related maps

• West Virginia map — cities, borders and geography.
• Blank West Virginia map and printable West Virginia map.
• Charleston, the state capital, in Kanawha County.
• Neighbouring county maps: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky.
• South Atlantic states · the South · Eastern Time Zone.
• Geography: Appalachian Mountains, Ohio River, Mason–Dixon line.
• All US county maps.