Chesterfield County area

Population and density of Chesterfield County

The Census Bureau estimates that 397,148 people lived in Chesterfield County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #197 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 364,084, the population has grown by 33,064 (+9.1%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 423.5 square miles of land, that is 938 people per square mile (362 per km²), placing Chesterfield County #199 nationally for density and #37 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 0.682 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 Chesterfield County

Chesterfield County has no incorporated cities, towns or villages. All 397,148 of its residents live in unincorporated communities, which the Census Bureau describes as census-designated places rather than municipalities.

Metropolitan area

Chesterfield County is a central 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; Chesterfield County accounts for 9.7% of the land and 28.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #62 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #45 by population.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Chesterfield County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

23112231132311423120232242322523234232352323623237238032383123832238342383623838

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 Chesterfield County

Chesterfield County shares a land border with 10 county equivalents. It has more land than 9 of them. The largest neighbor is Dinwiddie County (503.8 mi²) and the smallest is Colonial Heights city (7.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Chesterfield County forms a block of 2,327.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 18.2%.

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

Chesterfield County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.4 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 93 areas the size of Chesterfield County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20.6 miles (33.1 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 Chesterfield County?

Chesterfield County has more land than 831 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 Chesterfield County at #2,400 nationally by total area, 9 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 3.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.9 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 Chesterfield 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.