Lynchburg city area

Population and density of Lynchburg city

The Census Bureau estimates that 81,347 people lived in Lynchburg city on July 1, 2025. That ranks #728 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #27 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 79,014, the population has grown by 2,333 (+3%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 48.9 square miles of land, that is 1,663 people per square mile (642 per km²), placing Lynchburg city #102 nationally for density and #25 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 0.385 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 Lynchburg city

Every resident of Lynchburg city lives within Lynchburg city. The city and the county equivalent cover the same territory, 48.9 square miles of land in the 2026 place Gazetteer, so there are no separate towns or unincorporated areas to list.

Metropolitan area

Lynchburg city is a central county of the Lynchburg, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 269,169 residents on 2,120.5 square miles of land; Lynchburg city accounts for 2.3% of the land and 30.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #147 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #189 by population.

ZIP codes

6 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Lynchburg city; 2 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

245012450224503245042451524551

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 Lynchburg city

Lynchburg city shares a land border with 3 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Lynchburg city. The largest neighbor is Bedford County (760.1 mi²) and the smallest is Amherst County (474 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lynchburg city forms a block of 1,786.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 2.7%.

How big is Lynchburg city compared with U.S. states?

Lynchburg city has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 21 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 807 areas the size of Lynchburg city.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 6.99 miles (11.3 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 Lynchburg city?

Lynchburg city has more land than 91 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 Lynchburg city at #3,156 nationally by total area, 25 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 1.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2%. The two percentages are within 0.1 percentage points of each other. 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 Lynchburg city 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.