Mercer County is part of the Bluefield, WV-VA Micropolitan Statistical Area.

[6] In 1863, West Virginia's counties were divided into civil townships, with the intention of encouraging local government.

This proved impractical in the heavily rural state, and in 1872 the townships were converted into magisterial districts.

[7] Mercer County was divided into five districts: Beaver Pond, East River, Jumping Branch, Plymouth, and Rock.

[18] Mercer County's political history is largely typical of West Virginia.

It was supportive of remaining with Confederate Virginia when the state was created and voted Democratic in the first few post-Civil War elections.

[19] However, the influence of coal industry executives turned the county towards the GOP during the "System of 1896".

[20] As with most of West Virginia, extensive unionization caused the county to swing to the Democratic Party during most of the twentieth century, but an extremely rapid swing towards the Republican Party has occurred since 2000, due to declining unionization,[21] along with regional views on environmental, social and cultural issues that are increasingly at odds with the national Democratic Party.

[22] The Mercer County Public School System has nineteen elementary schools, including Athens, Bluefield Intermediate, Bluewell, Brushfork, Ceres, Glenwood Elementary, Lashmeet-Matoaka, Melrose, Memorial, Mercer County Early Learning - Bluefield and Princeton sites, Mercer, Montcalm, Oakvale (funding for constructing a new Oakvale school has been approved), Princeton Primary, Spanishburg, Straley, Sun Valley and Whitethorn.

The Mercer County Sheriff's Department consists of 30 sworn law enforcement officers and a number of civilian employees.

Within the Mercer County Sheriff's Department are several specialized units to better serve the citizens.

The rest of the team consists of other agencies within the county, excluding the State Police.

The Sheriff's Department has one dedicated Deputy who serves on the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force.