[2] The county is named for Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States.

[3] Lincoln County includes the Newport, Oregon Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Three elections were held to determine if the county seat should be moved from Toledo to Newport.

While Toledo has remained the industrial hub of Lincoln County, the city has never regained the position it once had.

In 1936, as some of many federally funded construction projects during the Great Depression, bridges were constructed across the bays at Waldport, Newport, and Siletz, eliminating the ferries needed to cross these bays.

The northern part of Lincoln County includes the Siletz Reservation, created by treaty in 1855.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lincoln County issued a face mask directive which exempted "people of color".

[4] Principal industries of the county are travel (primarily tourism), trade, health services and construction.

[5][6] Paper manufacturing and fishing are still important although they contribute proportionally less to the county's employment than they used to.

[citation needed] Newport is home of Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center, as well as the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and their fleet of ocean-going vessels.

Many of the other communities in Lincoln county depend on tourism as their principal source of income.

29.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

In its early history, Lincoln County, like almost all of Western Oregon during the era, was very solidly Republican.

It was won by the Republican presidential nominee in every election from its creation up to and including 1928, even voting for William Howard Taft in 1912 when his party was divided.

The only Republicans to win Lincoln County since the Great Depression transformed its politics have been Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, who each carried the county twice.

In the Oregon State Senate, Lincoln County is in the 5th District, represented by Republican Dick Anderson.