Whitman County, Washington

Whitman County is a county in Washington, United States, set in the rolling wheat country of the Palouse in the state’s southeastern corner. It had a population of 47,973 at the 2020 census, and the Census Bureau put the 2025 estimate at 48,512. The county covers 2,159 square miles (5,590 km2) of land and 19 square miles (49 km2) of water, centred near 46°53′N 117°31′W.

Colfax is the county seat, and its postal code is 99111. Whitman County has four incorporated cities — Pullman, Colfax, Palouse and Tekoa — and ten incorporated towns, plus a scatter of small unincorporated communities across the Palouse hills. The county sits in the Pacific time zone and carries FIPS code 53075.

Towns & Villages in Whitman County

Pullman, home to Washington State University, is by far the largest place in the county; Colfax, the seat, is a distant second. The rest of the county’s incorporated places are small farm towns strung along the region’s rail lines and wheat-hauling routes, most with populations in the hundreds.

ZIP Codes

• 99163, 99164 — Pullman (also serves the WSU campus)
• 99111 — Colfax (also serves the county courthouse area)
• 99161 — Palouse
• 99033 — Tekoa
• 99130 — Garfield
• 99158 — Oakesdale
• 99170 — Rosalia
• 99125 — Endicott
• 99128 — Farmington
• 99143 — La Crosse
• 99017 — Lamont
• 99149 — Malden
• 99171 — St. John
• 99179 — Uniontown

Smaller unincorporated places such as Albion, Diamond, Ewan, Hooper and Steptoe have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered under the nearest incorporated town’s code.

Geography

Whitman County lies entirely within the Palouse, a wide belt of wind-deposited loess hills that forms some of the most productive dryland wheat country in the world. The landscape rolls in long, rounded ridges rather than flat plains, drained by the Palouse River and its tributaries, with the Snake River forming part of the county’s southern edge. Elevations run from roughly 700 feet along the Snake up past 2,500 feet in the eastern hills near the Idaho line.

The county borders eight neighbors. To the north lies Spokane County; to the northwest, Lincoln County; to the west, Adams County; to the southwest, Franklin County; to the south, Garfield County and Columbia County; and across the state line to the east lie Idaho’s Latah, Benewah and Nez Perce counties.

Demographics

Whitman County had a population of 47,973 at the 2020 census, rising to an estimated 48,512 more recently. Pullman and Colfax are its two largest communities by a wide margin; most of the rest of the county is sparsely settled farmland. Median household income in Washington state was $94,605 in the 2023 American Community Survey; Whitman County’s figure runs below the state median because a large share of residents are university students with little independent income. Population density across the county’s 2,159 square miles of land works out to roughly 22 people per square mile, a figure skewed heavily upward by Pullman itself.

Economy & Local Life

Agriculture and higher education anchor the county’s economy. Whitman County produces more wheat, barley, dry peas and lentils than any other county in the United States, and grain elevators dominate the skyline of nearly every small town along the rail lines. Washington State University, in Pullman, is the county’s largest employer and drives a service economy of student housing, restaurants and retail that swells the population each fall and empties out each summer. Small-town economies elsewhere in the county still turn on the wheat harvest, custom combining crews and farm-equipment dealers.

History

Whitman County was organized on November 29, 1871, carved out of the much larger Stevens County, four years before Washington became a state. It is named for Marcus Whitman, the Presbyterian missionary killed by Cayuse tribal members near present-day Walla Walla in 1847. The Washington Territorial legislature chartered Washington Agricultural College, now Washington State University, in 1890; it opened in Pullman on January 13, 1892, with 59 students, and has grown into the region’s dominant employer and the reason Pullman is the county’s largest city today.

Getting There

U.S. Route 195 is the county’s main north–south highway, linking Spokane to Lewiston, Idaho, through the middle of the Palouse. Pullman–Moscow Regional Airport, just south of Pullman, has scheduled commercial service on Alaska Airlines. Whitman County has no Amtrak station of its own; the nearest is in Spokane, roughly 75 miles to the north.

• Spokane — about 75 miles north
• Lewiston, Idaho — about 30 miles south
• Walla Walla — about 85 miles southwest
• Moscow, Idaho — about 8 miles east of Pullman

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Whitman County?
It is in southeastern Washington, in the Palouse region along the Idaho border, between Spokane and the Snake River.

What is the Colfax postcode?
Colfax, the county seat, uses ZIP code 99111.

What is the population of Whitman County?
The 2020 census counted 47,973 residents, with a 2025 estimate of 48,512.

What is the largest city in Whitman County?
Pullman, home to Washington State University, is by far the largest city, with 32,901 residents at the 2020 census.

Is Colfax the largest city or just the county seat?
Colfax is only the county seat. It is the second-largest city, with 2,782 residents in 2020, far behind Pullman.

What crops is Whitman County known for?
Wheat, barley, dry peas and lentils. The county produces more of each than any other county in the United States.

When was Whitman County created?
It was organized on November 29, 1871, from land that had been part of Stevens County.

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