It was named for Joseph Warren of Massachusetts, a physician and general in the American Revolutionary War who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

[4] Developed as a tobacco and cotton farming area, Warrenton became a center of commerce and was one of the wealthiest towns in the state from 1840 to 1860.

[6] The county's economy declined after the American Civil War,[6] though its large black population briefly exercised significant political influence during the Reconstruction era.

Warren's economy, like those of its neighboring counties in northeastern North Carolina, continued to struggle[3] until it gained some manufacturing businesses in the 20th century.

[8] Since the late 20th century, county residents have worked to attract other industrial and business development.

[9] In 1978, a transformer manufacturer contracted a trucking company to illegally dump polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) alongside roads in North Carolina.

National civil rights organizations and politicians became involved, and about 500 protestors were arrested in September 1982 for attempting to obstruct the construction of the disposal site.

While the demonstrations did not halt the creation of the landfill, the site was eventually detoxified, and a significant amount of historiographic literature attributes the start of the modern environmental justice movement to the protests.

[13] It sits in the northeastern section of the state's Piedmont region and lies within the Roanoke and Tar-Pamlico river basins.

[3] With Warren County, the black population is concentrated in areas near 13 pre-Civil War plantation sites.

White residents are concentrated in Warrenton and in waterfront areas along the county's two large reservoirs.

County commissioners are elected at-large to staggered four-year terms and represent one of five single-member districts.

[39] According to the 2021 American Community Survey, an estimated 15.2 percent of county residents have attained a bachelor's degree or higher level of education.