Washington County, Ohio

Washington County is a county in Ohio, United States, in the southeastern corner of the state
along the Ohio River. It had a population of 59,771 at the 2020 census, an estimated 58,978 by
2024, and covers 632 square miles (1,637 km2) centred near 39°28′N 81°29′W.

Marietta is the county seat and the county’s largest city; its postal code is 45750. The
county holds 2 cities, 5 incorporated villages and 6 census-designated places across 22
townships, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 39167.

Towns & Villages in Washington County

Washington County has 13 named places with 2020 census counts: 2 cities, 5 incorporated
villages and 6 unincorporated census-designated places (CDPs). Together they hold about 28,400
of the county’s 59,771 residents; the rest live across the county’s rural townships in
smaller crossroads communities and farmsteads with no census figure of their own.

Two names are easy to mix up. Matamoras, the incorporated village, was renamed New Matamoras
by the post office to avoid confusion with Metamora in Fulton County, but the village’s own
charter still reads Matamoras — both names refer to the same place on Ohio Route 7. Newport
the CDP, on the county’s eastern river bend, is unrelated to the many other Newports around
the country and has never been incorporated.

ZIP Codes

• 45750 — Marietta (the county’s largest ZIP by population)
• 45714 — Belpre
• 45715 — Beverly (also serves Waterford Township’s eastern half)
• 45773 — Reno
• 45768 — Newport
• 45767 — Matamoras
• 45744 — Lowell
• 45786 — Waterford
• 45784 — Vincent
• 45742 — Little Hocking
• 45746 — Macksburg
• 45745 — Lower Salem

Devola has no ZIP of its own; mail there is delivered under Marietta’s 45750 code, since
the CDP sits directly across the Muskingum River from the city and was never platted as a
separate post town.

Townships

These six townships had individually published 2020 census counts; the county’s other 16
townships — Aurelius, Decatur, Dunham, Fairfield, Fearing, Grandview, Independence, Lawrence,
Liberty, Ludlow, Muskingum, Palmer, Salem, Warren, Watertown and Wesley — are rural and hold
the county’s remaining population in scattered farmsteads and hamlets.

Geography

Washington County sits in Ohio’s unglaciated Appalachian Plateau, a region of steep,
forested ridges cut by the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. Of its 640 square miles of total area, 632
are land and 8.0 are water, about 1.3 percent — the Ohio River, which forms the county’s
entire southeastern border, and the Muskingum River, which joins it at Marietta, account for
nearly all of it. Part of the Wayne National Forest, Ohio’s only national forest, extends into
the county’s northern and western townships. Washington is Ohio’s fifth-largest county by land
area.

Noble County lies to the north, Monroe County to the northeast, Tyler County, West Virginia to
the east, Pleasants and Wood counties, West Virginia to the south and southeast across the Ohio
River, Athens County to the southwest, and Morgan County to the west. Noble County, Monroe County, Tyler County, Pleasants County, Wood County, Athens County and Morgan County all border Washington
directly.

Demographics

Washington County had a population of 59,771 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts
the county near 58,978 residents as of 2024, a slight decline typical of rural Appalachian Ohio.
Marietta and Belpre are by far the two largest communities, together holding roughly a third of
the county’s population. Median household income runs $63,603 (2024), below Ohio’s statewide
figure of $67,769 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to roughly 95 people per square mile
of land, well below the state average and consistent with the county’s hilly, forested terrain.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 4,510 people,
followed by retail trade at 3,442 and manufacturing at 3,287. Marietta College, a four-year
liberal arts school founded in 1835 with roughly 1,200 students, and Washington State College of
Ohio, a two-year technical college, both sit in Marietta and anchor the county’s education
sector. Eramet Marietta Industries, a ferromanganese refinery, and Sewah Studios, a manufacturer
of cast-aluminum historical markers used across the country, are both based in the city. The
county’s biggest annual event is the Ohio River Sternwheel Festival, held on the Marietta
riverfront each September on the weekend after Labor Day, when sternwheeler boats gather on the
Ohio and Muskingum rivers and draw tens of thousands of visitors.

History

Ohio’s territorial governor, Arthur St. Clair, established Washington County on 27 July
1788, the first county organized in the Northwest Territory and Ohio’s oldest. It is named for
George Washington. General Rufus Putnam had led 47 pioneers to found Marietta at the mouth of the
Muskingum River three months earlier, on 7 April 1788, under the Ohio Company’s purchase of
land authorized by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 — the first permanent American settlement
in the territory that became Ohio.

Marietta sits atop the Marietta Earthworks, a set of Hopewell-culture mounds and enclosures
roughly 1,500 years old that the pioneers found already standing when they arrived. Two of the
mounds, Conus and Quadranaou, survive as protected sites within the modern city. Macksburg, in the
county’s interior, was the site of one of Ohio’s first oil fields after an 1860 seep discovery
on a local farm; production peaked in 1886 and had ceased by 1900.

Getting There

Interstate 77 crosses the county’s eastern edge, running north to Cleveland and south to
Charleston, West Virginia. Ohio Routes 7, 26, 60, 550 and 676 and US Route 50 also serve the
county.

• Parkersburg, WV — about 15 miles south
• Athens — about 30 miles southwest
• Cambridge — about 40 miles north
• Zanesville — about 45 miles northwest

Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport, across the Ohio River in Williamstown, West Virginia, is the
nearest commercial airport, with regular flights to Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Marietta has had no passenger rail service since 1953; the nearest Amtrak station is in
Charleston, West Virginia.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Washington County located?
It sits in southeastern Ohio along the Ohio River, bordered by Noble, Monroe, Athens and Morgan
counties in Ohio and Tyler, Pleasants and Wood counties in West Virginia.

What is the population of Washington County?
59,771 at the 2020 census, with a 2024 estimate near 58,978.

How big is Washington County?
640 square miles (1,700 km2) in total, of which 632 square miles (1,637 km2) are land.

What is the county seat of Washington County?
Marietta is the county seat, founded in 1788 as the first permanent American settlement in the
Northwest Territory.

How many towns and villages are in Washington County?
Two cities, Marietta and Belpre; five incorporated villages — Beverly, Lowell, Lower Salem,
Macksburg and Matamoras; and six census-designated places — Devola, Little Hocking, Newport,
Reno, Vincent and Waterford.

What ZIP codes does Washington County use?
45750 for Marietta, 45714 for Belpre, and separate codes for each incorporated village and CDP,
from 45715 (Beverly) to 45786 (Waterford).

What is Washington County known for?
Being Ohio’s oldest county and the site of the first organized American settlement in the
Northwest Territory, plus the annual Ohio River Sternwheel Festival in Marietta.

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