Wood River is a city in Madison County, Illinois. The population was 10,464 as of the 2020 census. Wood River is located in western Madison County on the Mississippi River approximately 15 miles upstream of downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It is among several contiguous cities and villages that have come to be known as the "Riverbend" area. The current confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers is just south of one of these neighboring villages, Hartford. Wood River is bordered to the northwest by East Alton, to the north by Rosewood Heights, to the northeast by Bethalto, to the southeast by Roxana, to the south by Hartford, and to the southwest, across the Mississippi River, by West Alton, Missouri.