Amherst County area

Population and density of Amherst County

The Census Bureau estimates that 31,962 people lived in Amherst County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,433 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #57 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 31,313, the population has grown by 649 (+2.1%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 474 square miles of land, that is 67 people per square mile (26 per km²), placing Amherst County #1,286 nationally for density and #87 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 9.5 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Amherst County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Amherst County. Together they are home to 2,146 people (6.7%); the other 29,816 (93.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Amherst town, with 2,146 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Amherst County is a central county of the Lynchburg, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 269,169 residents on 2,120.5 square miles of land; Amherst County accounts for 22.4% of the land and 11.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #147 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #189 by population.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Amherst County; 4 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

229222296724483245212452624553245722457424595

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Amherst County

Amherst County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Bedford County (760.1 mi²) and the smallest is Lynchburg city (48.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Amherst County forms a block of 3,187.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.9%.

How big is Amherst County compared with U.S. states?

Amherst County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.2 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 83 areas the size of Amherst County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.8 miles (35 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Amherst County?

Amherst County has more land than 1,048 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Amherst County at #2,249 nationally by total area, 75 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.1 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Amherst County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.