Charlottesville city area

Population and density of Charlottesville city

The Census Bureau estimates that 44,388 people lived in Charlottesville city on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,127 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #39 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 46,518, the population has declined by 2,130 (−4.6%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 10.2 square miles of land, that is 4,333 people per square mile (1,673 per km²), placing Charlottesville city #26 nationally for density and #7 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 0.148 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 Charlottesville city

Every resident of Charlottesville city lives within Charlottesville city. The city and the county equivalent cover the same territory, 10.2 square miles of land in the 2026 place Gazetteer, so there are no separate towns or unincorporated areas to list.

Metropolitan area

Charlottesville city is a central county of the Charlottesville, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 228,597 residents on 1,643.6 square miles of land; Charlottesville city accounts for 0.6% of the land and 19.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #195 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #213 by population.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Charlottesville city; 1 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2290122902229032290422908

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 Charlottesville city

Charlottesville city shares a land border with 1 county equivalent. Albemarle County has 70.3 times its land area.

How big is Charlottesville city compared with U.S. states?

Charlottesville city has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 101 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 3,854 areas the size of Charlottesville city.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 3.20 miles (5.2 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 Charlottesville city?

Charlottesville city has more land than 16 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 Charlottesville city at #3,206 nationally by total area, the same position as its land rank. Changing the area definition does not change its position in this release.

Its water share is 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 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 Charlottesville city 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.