Washington Counties Map: Click All 39 Counties

How many counties are in Washington?

Washington has 39 counties. 32 states have more, and 17 have fewer.

Washington has 39 counties. King County, home to Seattle, has the most people. San Juan County is a cluster of islands between the mainland and Vancouver Island, and Thurston County holds the capital, Olympia, at the southern tip of Puget Sound.

How Washington's counties were formed

Lewis County, created in 1845 by Oregon's provisional government, is Washington's oldest. Washington Territory was organized in 1853, and its counties spread from Puget Sound and the Columbia River across the Cascades as railroads arrived. Pend Oreille County, split from Stevens County in 1911, was the 39th and last.

Washington regions and the counties in each

The Cascade Range splits Washington into two very different halves. Western Washington includes the Olympic Peninsula (Clallam, Jefferson), the Puget Sound counties (King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap, Thurston), the island counties of San Juan and Island, and the southwest along the Columbia (Clark, Cowlitz). Eastern Washington is drier: Chelan and Okanogan along the Cascades, the Columbia Basin's farms in Grant and Benton, Yakima's orchards, the Palouse wheat country of Whitman County and Spokane on the Idaho line.

Notable places on the Washington county map

Mount Rainier, the state's highest point at 14,411 feet, is in Pierce County. Olympic National Park covers the center of the Olympic Peninsula, and Mount St. Helens, which erupted in 1980, is in Skamania County. Grand Coulee Dam, the largest power producer in the United States, spans the Columbia River between Grant and Okanogan counties.

Washington counties map: the biggest and smallest

Okanogan County is the largest county in Washington, with 5,266 square miles of land, about 8% of the state. That's more land than the whole state of Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. San Juan County is the smallest, at 174 square miles.

The smallest counties by land area are San Juan County (174 sq mi), Island County (209 sq mi) and Wahkiakum County (263 sq mi).

Which counties in Washington have the most people?

King County has the most people, about 2,340,211 in the Census Bureau's July 2024 estimate, or 29% of everyone in Washington. The three biggest counties together hold 52% of the state's 7,958,180 people. Garfield County has the fewest, about 2,404.

The most crowded is King County, with about 1,106 people per square mile. The emptiest is Garfield County, with about 3 people per square mile. Comparing the two is a quick way to show children that a big county on the map isn't always a big county in people.

What county is Olympia in?

Olympia, the capital of Washington, is in Thurston County. Thurston County ranks 6th of 39 by population. Washington is called the Evergreen State, and it became the 42nd state in 1889.

Counties on the Washington border

Learning the edge of the map first gives children a frame to fill in. Washington shares a border with Idaho and Oregon.

How Washington's counties compare with other states

Washington ranks 20th among the 50 states in land area and 13th in population. Its average county covers about 1,704 square miles and holds about 204,056 people. Across the 50 states, the average county-level area covers about 1,139 square miles and holds about 109,381 people, so Washington's counties are bigger than usual in size. Bigger counties mean fewer names to learn for a state this size.

Landmarks for learning the counties of Washington

• The Puget Sound counties (King, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston) hold most of the people.
• The Cascade Mountains split the state; Okanogan, the largest county, is just east of them.
• Spokane County is on the eastern border with Idaho.

With 39 counties, work one region at a time: study it with names on, then take a Practice round and stop when you've found that group. Then print the Washington county map worksheet to check that it sticks on paper.

All 39 Washington counties

Every county on the map, A to Z, with its land area and July 2024 population estimate.

Washington geography for homeschoolers

Pair this map with the West states and capitals quiz and the US states quiz. If you teach at home, see homeschooling in washington state, and check washington school choice to see whether a program may help pay for Washington history and geography curriculum. Each program decides what it covers.