Portland Map
Portland stands where the Willamette River joins the Columbia, an ocean port 100 river miles from the sea, with about 636,000 residents in 2024.
Where is Portland?
Portland is in northwestern Oregon, at the northern end of the Willamette Valley and directly on the Washington state line, which the Columbia River forms here. The Willamette splits the city into an east side on flat ground and a west side climbing into the Tualatin Mountains. It is about 175 miles south of Seattle, roughly 110 miles north of Eugene, and some 430 miles northwest of Boise.
Portland at a glance
| State | Oregon |
| Counties | Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties |
| Population | 635,749 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 28 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Pacific Time |
| Region | West (Pacific division) |
Another 9,956 residents would lift Portland past Detroit into No. 27; 24,830 fewer would put it behind Memphis at No. 29. No second Oregon city reaches the hundred. That is about 15% of Oregon's 4.27 million residents inside a single municipal line. It reaches into three counties, of which Multnomah County is much the largest: the city holds about 80% of that county's 795,897 people.
Portland in Oregon
The city limits cross three counties — Multnomah, which holds almost all of it, plus slivers of Washington and Clackamas — and Multnomah is the smallest county in Oregon by area and the largest by population, a contrast the Oregon county map makes obvious. Salem, the capital, is 45 miles up the valley, and most of Oregon's people live in this one lowland corridor rather than in the dry two-thirds of the state east of the mountains. See the Oregon state page for that split.
Two rivers, two volcanic ranges
The Columbia River is the only sea-level route through the Cascade Range, and its gorge starts just east of the city — which is why the Oregon Trail, the railroads and the interstate all converge here, and why cold air pours out of the gorge in winter. Mount Hood stands about 50 miles east and Mount St. Helens some 50 miles north, both active volcanoes in plain view. Ocean-going ships reach Portland by way of the Columbia from the Pacific coast, about 100 river miles downstream at Astoria.
Cities near Portland
Up and down the coast: Seattle, Boise, Sacramento, San Francisco and Reno. The Pacific division page gathers the western coastal states.