Isle of Wight County area

Population and density of Isle of Wight County

The Census Bureau estimates that 41,321 people lived in Isle of Wight County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,186 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #45 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 38,612, the population has grown by 2,709 (+7%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 315.7 square miles of land, that is 131 people per square mile (51 per km²), placing Isle of Wight County #835 nationally for density and #61 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 4.9 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 Isle of Wight County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Isle of Wight County. Together they are home to 12,059 people (29.2%); the other 29,262 (70.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Smithfield town, with 9,112 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Windsor town grew fastest since then (+7.4%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Isle of Wight County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Isle of Wight 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; Isle of Wight County accounts for 9.9% of the land and 2.3% 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

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

2330423314233152343023487238512386623898

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 Isle of Wight County

Isle of Wight County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Southampton County (599.2 mi²) and the smallest is Franklin city (8.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Isle of Wight County forms a block of 1,601.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.7%.

How big is Isle of Wight County compared with U.S. states?

Isle of Wight County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.3 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 125 areas the size of Isle of Wight County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 17.8 miles (28.6 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 Isle of Wight County?

Isle of Wight County has more land than 450 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 Isle of Wight County at #2,701 nationally by total area, 71 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 13%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 11.8 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 Isle of Wight 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.