In the wider northern half, the land is rugged along its border with New York State, while the southern portion tends to be swampier.

Higher hills and mountains are predominantly found along the county's western edge, while lower ones are more common in the east, near the Delaware River.

Most of Wayne County is drained by the Delaware (which separates Pennsylvania from New York), with the exception of a few small areas in the western part of the county, which are drained by either the Starrucca Creek or the Lackawanna River (which both eventually flow into the Susquehanna River).

The county has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb) and average monthly temperatures in Honesdale range from 22.8 °F in January to 67.9 °F in July.

[4][12] 67.6% of Wayne County's households were families, 53.9% were headed by a heterosexual married couple (Pennsylvania did not allow same-sex marriage until May 20, 2014, after the 2010 Census had been completed), and 26.6% included children under the age of 18.

[13][14] According to self-reported ancestry figures recorded by the ACS, the five largest ancestral groups in Wayne County in 2013 were Germans (30.3%), Irish (22.1%), Italians (13.9%), English (10.9%), and Poles (10.1%).

[15] As of January 8, 2024, there were 35,181 registered voters in Wayne County, with the following party breakdown:[18] Chart of Voter Registration Wayne has long been one of the most Republican counties in Pennsylvania, as Republicans consistently win easily in federal, state and local elections.

[24][25] Since then, only three Democrats have won even forty percent of the county's vote – William Jennings Bryan in 1900, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and Barack H. Obama in 2008.

These agencies include: Maplewood Fire and Rescue provides QRS "quick response service" to all medical calls in Lake townships.

[41][42] School districts include:[43] There are five private or parochial schools in Wayne County: The Wayne Library Alliance[46] operates seven public libraries throughout the county: There is one seminary, St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary[54] in South Canaan.

Villages are unincorporated communities within a township, often defined by ZIP code boundaries, property deeds, and local consensus, but which have no official boundaries or population, unless they are also census-designated places (CDPs), geographical areas designated by the US Census Bureau for the purposes of compiling demographic data.