Gloucester County area

Population and density of Gloucester County

The Census Bureau estimates that 40,097 people lived in Gloucester County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,209 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #46 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 38,714, the population has grown by 1,383 (+3.6%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 217.8 square miles of land, that is 184 people per square mile (71 per km²), placing Gloucester County #672 nationally for density and #54 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 3.5 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 Gloucester County

Gloucester County has no incorporated cities, towns or villages. All 40,097 of its residents live in unincorporated communities, which the Census Bureau describes as census-designated places rather than municipalities.

Metropolitan area

Gloucester County is a central county of the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 18 county equivalents have 1,797,213 residents on 3,201.9 square miles of land; Gloucester County accounts for 6.8% of the land and 2.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #96 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #38 by population. It belongs to the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

6 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Gloucester County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

230502306123062230722312823149

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 Gloucester County

Gloucester County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is King and Queen County (315.1 mi²) and the smallest is Mathews County (85.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Gloucester County forms a block of 996.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 21.9%.

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

Gloucester County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.7 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 181 areas the size of Gloucester County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 14.8 miles (23.8 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 Gloucester County?

Gloucester County has more land than 252 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 Gloucester County at #2,867 nationally by total area, 103 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 24.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 23.2 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 Gloucester 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.