28,798 people (2024 Census estimate, +2.3% since 2020)
368 square miles of land · 78 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
5 active community water systems list Wells County in the area they serve, reporting 14,007 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| BLUFFTON UTILITIES WATER DEPT groundwater · local government · IN5290001 | 10,298 served |
| OSSIAN MUNICIPAL WATER DEPARTMENT groundwater · local government · IN5290002 | 3,289 served |
| KOZY KOURT DBA SILO FARMS groundwater · private · IN5290004 | 325 served |
| HOMESTEAD WATER ASSOCIATION groundwater · private · IN5290005 | 50 served |
| STONEY CREEK ESTATES MHC, LLC groundwater · private · IN5290003 | 45 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 77 people were held in Wells County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2024), or 446 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2019 it was about 106.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
3 school districts have their office in Wells County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $33 million — $27.6 million to run schools, about $11,198 per student, plus $2.6 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $11.7 million local (mostly property tax), $21.2 million state, $1.7 million federal. Long-term debt: $60 million.
Spent $23 million — $18.3 million to run schools, about $10,124 per student, plus $3.5 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $7.4 million local (mostly property tax), $13.3 million state, $2.6 million federal. Long-term debt: $21.4 million.
Spent $10.8 million — $9.7 million to run schools, about $10,929 per student, plus $750,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $3.9 million local (mostly property tax), $6.4 million state, $1 million federal. Long-term debt: $7.5 million.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Wells County about $9.6 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very High; social vulnerability: Very Low.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
158 bridges in Wells County: 69 in good condition, 83 fair, and 6 poor (3.8%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| CR 300 WEST over SCUFFLE CREEK · built 1920 | 1,154 vehicles a day |
| CR 300 WEST over STITES DITCH · built 1950 | 1,042 vehicles a day |
| JEFF ROAD over BRANCH SALAMONIE RIVER · built 1920 | 300 vehicles a day |
| CR 100 NORTH over ROCK CREEK · built 1920 | 250 vehicles a day |
| CR 500 WEST over MOSSBURG DITCH · built 1930 | 100 vehicles a day |
| CR 300 SOUTH over SIX MILE CREEK · built 1920 | 66 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $9.7 million of work in Wells County in fiscal 2025, about $343 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Indiana are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Wells County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Wells County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Indiana: the state government and every county in Indiana.
Nearby counties: Adams County (15 mi) · Huntington County (15 mi) · Blackford County (19 mi) · Jay County (23 mi) · Allen County (26 mi) · Grant County (28 mi).