ZIP code profile · 2024 county data

ZIP Code 26362

Ritchie County, West Virginia: Census demographics for this ZIP plus the containing county's FBI UCR crime rate.

Data updated 2026-08-24

355
Property rate /100K (county)
2,856
Population (ZIP)
47
Violent rate /100K (county)

Is ZIP code 26362 safe? Honest data snapshot

ZIP code 26362 sits within Ritchie County, WV. The figures below are the county's own FBI UCR numbers for 2024, the most accurate available statistic for this location, not a ZIP-specific calculation.

Ritchie County reported a violent-crime rate of 47 per 100,000 residents and a property-crime rate of 355 per 100,000 in 2024, drawing on county-level agency submissions.

Based on just 4 reported violent incidents across a county population of 8,444, this count is too low to support a reliable per-100K rate comparison. It may reflect a genuinely low-crime county, or it may reflect incomplete agency-level reporting to the FBI UCR Program for this county and year, small county-level counts are common in FBI Table 10 and should be treated as a data point, not a precise safety ranking.

ZIP 26362 carries a Census-reported population of 2,856, ranking #2 of 10 ZIPs in Ritchie County, spread across 105.8 square miles (about 27 people per square mile). For a full breakdown of Ritchie County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Ritchie County crime page linked below.

ZIP 26362 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). The property-led county proxy above is from Ritchie County agency submissions; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.

ZIP 26362 Census context

These are ZIP/ZCTA demographic estimates, separate from the county-level FBI proxy above. They describe the local settlement, not a crime rate.

Median household income
$43,017
Median age
51.6 years
Owner-occupied homes
79%
Occupied homes
1,140

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 5-year ZCTA estimates (income, age, and occupied housing tenure).

Ritchie County UCR book ZIP 26362 inherits

ZIP 26362 itself is about 27 people per Census sq mi across 105.8 sq mi (2,856 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.

ZIP 26362's 2,856 residents are about 33.8% of the 2024 county reporting population (8,444), a large postal share of a county-wide rate.

Ritchie County's 2024 UCR book concentrates in larceny-theft (56% of 34 offenses; mix index 4,256). ZIP 26362 inherits that county mix, not a postal-native split.

Ritchie County 2024 vs 2023: property counts +88% vs 2023. Year-over-year moves are county agency submissions, still not ZIP-native.

Ritchie County offense mix (2024)

Mix index is HHI × 10,000 on county offense-type shares. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero; still county-agency data, not a ZIP-native FBI table.

Nationwide peers for ZIP 26362

Similar Census population (~2,856)

County detail: Ritchie County · State atlas: West Virginia

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ZIP population, land area, 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file, ACS 5-year estimates) and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States (CIUS) Table 10 (county-level crime, attributed via ZIP-to-county crosswalk).

Verify with Census.gov Geography and FBI.gov UCR.

Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page combines Census ZIP-level figures with a ZIP-to-county crosswalk to attribute FBI UCR crime data honestly, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.