3,803 people (2024 Census estimate, −4.1% since 2020)
1,271 square miles of land · 3 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.
6 active community water systems list Wells County in the area they serve, reporting 6,057 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| CENTRAL PLAINS WATER DISTRICT groundwater · private · ND5201309 | 3,504 served |
| HARVEY CITY OF groundwater · local government · ND5200458 | 1,783 served |
| FESSENDEN CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND5200338 | 479 served |
| BOWDON CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND5200118 | 131 served |
| SYKESTON CITY OF buys groundwater · local government · ND5200927 | 117 served |
| CATHAY CITY OF groundwater · local government · ND5200169 | 43 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 19 people were held in Wells County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2023), or 920 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2018 it was about 26.
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.
2 school districts have their office in Wells County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $7 million — $6.4 million to run schools, about $16,256 per student, plus $600,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $2.4 million local (mostly property tax), $3.4 million state, $992,000 federal.
Spent $4.1 million — $3.3 million to run schools, about $18,439 per student, plus $232,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $1.8 million local (mostly property tax), $1.8 million state, $235,000 federal.
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 $4.2 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very High; social vulnerability: Relatively Moderate.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
41 bridges in Wells County: 25 in good condition, 13 fair, and 3 poor (7.3%). “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.
| COUNTY HIGHWAY over SHEYENNE RIVER · built 1955 | 10 vehicles a day |
| COUNTY HIGHWAY over JAMES RIVER · built 1950 | 10 vehicles a day |
| COUNTY HIGHWAY over JAMES RIVER · built 1915 | 5 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $8.2 million of work in Wells County in fiscal 2025, about $2,066 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 North Dakota 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 North Dakota: the state government and every county in North Dakota.
Nearby counties: Sheridan County (30 mi) · Benson County (37 mi) · Eddy County (38 mi) · Foster County (38 mi) · Kidder County (44 mi) · Pierce County (47 mi).