Henry County area

Population and density of Henry County

The Census Bureau estimates that 49,242 people lived in Henry County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,036 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #37 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 50,939, the population has declined by 1,697 (−3.3%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 382.4 square miles of land, that is 129 people per square mile (50 per km²), placing Henry County #840 nationally for density and #62 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 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 Henry County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Henry County. Together they are home to 732 people (1.5%); the other 48,510 (98.5%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Ridgeway town, with 732 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Henry County is a central county of the Martinsville, VA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 63,091 residents on 393.3 square miles of land; Henry County accounts for 97.2% of the land and 78% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #495 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #150 by population.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Henry County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

240542405524078240892410224112241332414824165241682453027048

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 Henry County

Henry County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in North Carolina. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Pittsylvania County (969 mi²) and the smallest is Martinsville city (11 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Henry County forms a block of 3,550.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.8%.

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

Henry County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.7 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 103 areas the size of Henry County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 19.6 miles (31.5 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 Henry County?

Henry County has more land than 629 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 Henry County at #2,647 nationally by total area, 54 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 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Henry 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.