James City County area

Population and density of James City County

The Census Bureau estimates that 83,326 people lived in James City County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #713 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #25 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 78,253, the population has grown by 5,073 (+6.5%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 142.3 square miles of land, that is 586 people per square mile (226 per km²), placing James City County #301 nationally for density and #45 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 1.1 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 James City County

James City County has no incorporated cities, towns or villages. All 83,326 of its residents live in unincorporated communities, which the Census Bureau describes as census-designated places rather than municipalities.

Metropolitan area

James City County is an outlying 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; James City County accounts for 4.4% of the land and 4.6% 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

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in James City County; 4 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2308123089231682318523188

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 James City County

James City County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is King and Queen County (315.1 mi²) and the smallest is Williamsburg city (8.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, James City County forms a block of 1,250.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.4%.

How big is James City County compared with U.S. states?

James City County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 7.3 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 277 areas the size of James City County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 11.9 miles (19.2 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 James City County?

James City County has more land than 156 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 James City County at #3,053 nationally by total area, 13 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 20.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 19.4 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 James City 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.