Charles City County area

Population and density of Charles City County

The Census Bureau estimates that 6,623 people lived in Charles City County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,766 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #125 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 6,772, the population has declined by 149 (−2.2%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 182.9 square miles of land, that is 36 people per square mile (14 per km²), placing Charles City County #1,844 nationally for density and #115 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 18 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 Charles City County

Charles City County has no incorporated cities, towns or villages. All 6,623 of its residents live in unincorporated communities, which the Census Bureau describes as census-designated places rather than municipalities.

Metropolitan area

Charles City County is an outlying county of the Richmond, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 17 county equivalents have 1,389,338 residents on 4,367.8 square miles of land; Charles City County accounts for 4.2% of the land and 0.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #62 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #45 by population.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Charles City County; 2 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2303023140231472318523231

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 Charles City County

Charles City County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Chesterfield County (423.5 mi²) and the smallest is James City County (142.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Charles City County forms a block of 1,736.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.5%.

How big is Charles City County compared with U.S. states?

Charles City County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 5.7 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 216 areas the size of Charles City County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 13.5 miles (21.8 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 Charles City County?

Charles City County has more land than 196 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 Charles City County at #3,015 nationally by total area, 11 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 10.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 9.3 percentage points higher. 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 Charles City 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.