Jefferson County, Ohio

Jefferson County is a county in Ohio, United States, about 39 miles southwest of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. It had a population of 65,249 at the 2020 census, an estimated 64,518 by 2024, and
covers 410.6 square miles (1,063 km2) centred near 40°23′N 80°46′W.

Steubenville is the county seat and largest city; its postal code is 43952. The county holds 2
cities, 16 incorporated villages, 1 census-designated place and 2 unincorporated communities
across 14 townships, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 39081.

Towns & Villages in Jefferson County

Jefferson County has 21 named places on record: 2 cities, 16 incorporated villages, 1
census-designated place and 2 unincorporated communities with no local government of their own.
CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp. covers a dissolved former village and a rural
crossroads community.

Smithfield voted to dissolve its village government in November 2019 and is now an
unincorporated community; its 869-resident count above is from the 2010 census, the last one
taken while it was still incorporated. Brilliant followed the same path decades earlier — it
disincorporated as a village on 24 November 1993 and is counted today as a census-designated
place. Mingo Junction and New Alexandria share the ZIP code 43938; New Alexandria’s mail is
handled through the Mingo Junction post office.

Townships

Jefferson County’s 14 civil townships cover the county outside its two cities. Steubenville
and Toronto sit mostly on annexed land carved from their home townships, so the township
population figures below exclude the cities themselves.

ZIP Codes

• 43952 — Steubenville
• 43953 — Wintersville (also serves parts of Steubenville)
• 43964 — Toronto
• 43938 — Mingo Junction (also serves New Alexandria)
• 43913 — Brilliant
• 43963 — Tiltonsville
• 43971 — Yorkville
• 43948 — Smithfield
• 43901 — Adena
• 43917 — Dillonvale
• 43908 — Bergholz
• 43903 — Amsterdam
• 43944 — Richmond
• 43943 — Rayland
• 43939 — Mount Pleasant
• 43932 — Irondale
• 43961 — Stratton
• 43926 — Empire
• 43910 — Bloomingdale
• 43930 — Hammondsville

Every incorporated place in Jefferson County keeps its own ZIP code except New Alexandria,
which uses Mingo Junction’s 43938, and the Wintersville area, which shares 43953 with
neighbouring Steubenville addresses.

Geography

Jefferson County sits in Ohio’s eastern Appalachian foothills, a belt of steep, wooded hills
cut by creeks running down to the Ohio River, which forms the county’s entire eastern border.
Of its 410.6 square miles, 408 are land and 2.6 are water, about 0.6 percent — low for the
region, since the county has no large lake and most of its surface water is the river itself and
its tributary creeks, including Cross Creek, Island Creek and Yellow Creek.

Columbiana County lies to the north, Carroll County to the northwest, Harrison County to the
southwest, and Belmont County to the south. Columbiana County, Carroll County, Harrison County and Belmont County all border Jefferson
directly. Across the Ohio River to the east lie three West Virginia counties: Hancock County to the
northeast, Brooke County due east, and Ohio County, home of Wheeling,
to the southeast.

Demographics

Jefferson County had a population of 65,249 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts
the county near 64,518 residents in 2024. Steubenville and Toronto are by far the two largest
communities, together holding more than a third of the county’s population. Median household
income runs $59,055 (2024 estimate), well below Ohio’s statewide figure of $67,769 (2023 ACS).
Population density works out to roughly 160 people per square mile of land, concentrated heavily
along the Ohio River corridor around Steubenville, Mingo Junction and Toronto, with the western
townships far more sparsely settled.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 4,498 people,
followed by retail trade at 3,947 and manufacturing at 2,900. Franciscan University of
Steubenville, a Catholic liberal-arts university on the city’s south side, is one of the
county’s largest employers and draws students from across the country. In Toronto, Titanium
Metals Corporation runs a titanium-processing plant that has anchored the city’s economy since
the steel industry’s decline in the 1980s. Steubenville, nicknamed the “City of Murals” for
more than 25 downtown murals depicting local history, hosts the Nutcracker Village each November
and December, a Fort Steuben Christmas festival built around more than 200 hand-painted
fiberglass nutcrackers that draws visitors from across the tri-state area.

History

Ohio territorial governor Arthur St. Clair organized Jefferson County by proclamation on 29
July 1797, six years before Ohio statehood, naming it for Thomas Jefferson, then vice president
of the United States. Its boundaries were redrawn several times as new counties split off before
settling into their current extent in 1833. The U.S. Army built Fort Steuben in 1786–87 to
protect government surveyors mapping land west of the Ohio River, and the settlement that grew
around the abandoned fort, first called La Belle, became Steubenville.

Quakers founded Mount Pleasant in 1803 as an anti-slavery community, and it became an early
center of abolitionist activity and a haven for people fleeing slavery on the Underground
Railroad. Charles Osborn launched the nation’s first anti-slavery newspaper there in 1817, and
Benjamin Lundy started a second abolitionist paper in 1821; the Mount Pleasant Historic District
is now a National Historic Landmark. Industrial development followed in 1856, when Frazier,
Kilgore and Company built a rolling mill and the Steubenville Coal and Mining Company sank a coal
shaft, making Jefferson County one of the region’s leading steel and coal centers for more than
a century before the industry’s decline in the 1980s.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Jefferson County. US 22 and US 250 run through it, along with
Ohio Routes 7, 43, 150, 151, 152, 164, 213, 646 and 647.

• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — about 39 miles northeast
• Wheeling, West Virginia — about 26 miles south
• Weirton, West Virginia — directly across the Ohio River from Steubenville

Pittsburgh International Airport, roughly 25 minutes from Steubenville via the Findlay
Connector toll road, is the nearest major commercial airport. No Amtrak line runs through
Jefferson County; the nearest station is in Pittsburgh.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Jefferson County located?
It sits in eastern Ohio along the Ohio River, about 39 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, bordered by
Columbiana, Carroll, Harrison and Belmont counties in Ohio and three West Virginia counties across
the river.

What is the population of Jefferson County?
65,249 at the 2020 census, with a 2024 estimate near 64,518.

How big is Jefferson County?
410.6 square miles (1,063 km2), of which 408 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Jefferson County?
Steubenville, founded around Fort Steuben and platted in 1797, is the county seat and largest
city.

How many towns and villages are in Jefferson County?
Two cities — Steubenville and Toronto — plus 16 incorporated villages, the
census-designated place of Brilliant, and the unincorporated communities of Smithfield and
Hammondsville.

What ZIP codes does Jefferson County use?
20 ZIP codes in all, from 43901 (Adena) to 43971 (Yorkville); Steubenville uses 43952 and shares
43953 with Wintersville.

What is Jefferson County known for?
Fort Steuben and the Nutcracker Village Christmas festival in Steubenville, the Mount Pleasant
Historic District’s Underground Railroad history, and more than a century as an Ohio Valley
steel and coal center.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Ohio.