Wharton County comprises the El Campo, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Houston-The Woodlands, TX Combined Statistical Area.

24.40% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

A map commissioned by the United States government in the 1860s, and sold by the Union Army for the benefit of wounded troops, indicates that, based on data from the 1860 national census, 80.9% of the population of Wharton County was enslaved.

This was the highest proportion of slaves in a single county in the state of Texas.

Demand related to development of new areas for cultivation had caused the number of slaves overall in the state to triple between 1850 and 1860, from 58,000 to 182,566.

[12] El Campo Metropolitan Airport, a general aviation airport, is located in unincorporated Wharton County southwest of El Campo.