57,524 people (2024 Census estimate, −3.4% since 2020)
419 square miles of land · 137 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.
8 active community water systems list Mercer County in the area they serve, reporting 31,415 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| WVAWC BLUEFIELD DISTRICT surface water · private · WV3302835 | 12,174 served |
| BLUEWELL PSD buys surface water · local government · WV3302804 | 6,216 served |
| ATHENS TOWN OF surface water · local government · WV3302801 | 5,633 served |
| GREEN VALLEY GLENWOOD PSD GLENWOOD surface water · local government · WV3302849 | 4,914 served |
| GREEN VALLEY GLENWOOD PSD BULLTAIL surface water · local government · WV3302813 | 2,130 served |
| RALEIGH COUNTY PSD EGERIA buys surface water · local government · WV3302857 | 200 served |
| PINNACLE WATER ASSOCIATION groundwater · local government · WV3302828 | 85 served |
| HIAWATHA WATER groundwater · local government · WV3302814 | 63 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 127 people were held in Mercer County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2024), or 367 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2019 it was about 149.
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.
1 school district has its office in Mercer County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $132.7 million — $118 million to run schools, about $13,583 per student, plus $12.4 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $34.4 million local (mostly property tax), $69.1 million state, $38.6 million 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: Relatively Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Mercer County about $18.5 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Low; social vulnerability: Relatively High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
175 bridges in Mercer County: 4 in good condition, 127 fair, and 44 poor (25.1%). “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.
| US 19 over BRUSH CREEK · built 1977 | 15,800 vehicles a day |
| US 19 over WV 112 NSRR East River · built 1974 | 15,000 vehicles a day |
| CR 27 over BRUSH CREEK · built 1960 | 10,100 vehicles a day |
| WV 104 over DAVES FORK · built 1957 | 9,500 vehicles a day |
| WV. RTE. 20 over C104/5 & NSRR & BRUSH CR · built 1947 | 8,200 vehicles a day |
| US 19 (NB) over WV 112 NSRR East River · built 1974 | 7,450 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $68.7 million of work in Mercer County in fiscal 2025, about $1,152 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 West Virginia 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 Mercer 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 Mercer County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of West Virginia: the state government and every county in West Virginia.
Nearby counties: Bland County, VA (19 mi) · Summers County (22 mi) · Giles County, VA (23 mi) · Raleigh County (26 mi) · Wyoming County (28 mi) · McDowell County (30 mi).