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Virginia Counties

Complete list of all 133 counties in Virginia with population, area, median income, and county seats — plus a free printable blank map.

Counties
133
Population
8,626,207
Area
39,490 sq mi
Capital
Richmond
Time Zone
Eastern (ET)
Labeled map of Virginia counties

Labeled outline map of Virginia counties. Download a printable version in SVG, PNG, or PDF.

All 120 Virginia counties

County County Seat Population Area Median Income Cities
Fairfax1,173,3526 mi²$156,20824
Prince William493,241336 mi²$134,83311
Virginia Beach456,349249 mi²$95,1821
Chesterfield400,248423 mi²$104,8976
Henrico334,762234 mi²$80,5054
Chesapeake253,091341 mi²$100,8331
Arlington236,74526 mi²$153,7843
Norfolk233,59654 mi²$66,0351
Newport News186,87069 mi²$69,0553
Stafford169,846269 mi²$136,2127
Albemarle159,227721 mi²$103,37114
Richmond156,52560 mi²$68,4761
Hanover154,254469 mi²$124,3389
Alexandria153,46715 mi²$123,2332
Spotsylvania141,654402 mi²$113,6454

How many counties does Virginia have?

Virginia is the only US state with a county / independent-city split. The Commonwealth has 95 counties and 38 independent cities — administratively peer to counties — for a total of 133 county-equivalents under US Census classification. Independent cities like Richmond, Norfolk, Alexandria, and Virginia Beach operate as separate jurisdictions and are not part of any surrounding county.

The largest county by land area is Pittsylvania County at 969 square miles, home to about 99,978 residents. The most populous is Fairfax County with approximately 1,173,352 residents — a density of about 195,559 people per square mile.

At the other end of the scale, Radford County has only about 2,205 residents.

Virginia’s capital is Richmond, while the largest city is Virginia Beach — a common pattern in the United States, where many states placed their capitals in smaller, more central towns rather than their largest commercial hubs.

Related resources

Download a printable outline of Virginia’s county boundaries from our blank map of Virginia page — available in SVG, PNG, and PDF.

Use the What County Am I In? tool to detect which Virginia county a GPS location or address falls in, or the Address to County Lookup for batch input.

For demographic radius analysis, the Find ZIP Codes in Radius and Population Within Radius tools let you draw a circle around any Virginia address and see every ZIP code and the total population inside.

Two SimpleMapLab studies cover Virginia specifically: the 100-mile radius around Richmond measures how much of the state lives within 100 miles of its capitol, and the loneliest town in Virginia ranks the state’s most isolated inhabited place. The county-counts blog post puts Virginia’s 133 counties in national context.

Frequently asked questions

Virginia is the only US state with a county / independent-city split. The Commonwealth has 95 counties and 38 independent cities — administratively peer to counties — for a total of 133 county-equivalents under US Census classification. Independent cities like Richmond, Norfolk, Alexandria, and Virginia Beach operate as separate jurisdictions and are not part of any surrounding county.
Pittsylvania County is the largest by land area at 969 square miles, with about 99,978 residents.
Fairfax County is the most populous, with approximately 1,173,352 residents over 6 square miles.
Radford County has the smallest population at about 2,205 residents.
Richmond is the state capital. The largest city is Virginia Beach — a common pattern in the US, where many states placed their capitals in smaller, more central towns rather than their largest commercial hubs.
Population, area, and demographic figures are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data (via the SimpleMaps dataset) and the US Census Gazetteer. County boundaries used to render the map are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau's TIGER/Line shapefiles. The data is public domain.
Data sources

Population and demographics are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data via the SimpleMaps dataset. Countiesboundaries are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line shapefiles. Land area is from the Census Gazetteer. State counts follow the US Census Bureau’s definition of counties and county-equivalents (50 states + DC = 3,143). All sources are public domain.

Neighboring states