Mathews County area

Population and density of Mathews County

The Census Bureau estimates that 8,529 people lived in Mathews County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,608 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #118 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 8,535, the population has declined by 6 (−0.1%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 85.9 square miles of land, that is 99 people per square mile (38 per km²), placing Mathews County #1,004 nationally for density and #72 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 6.4 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 Mathews County

Mathews County has no incorporated cities, towns or villages. All 8,529 of its residents live in unincorporated communities, which the Census Bureau describes as census-designated places rather than municipalities.

Metropolitan area

Mathews 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; Mathews County accounts for 2.7% of the land and 0.5% 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

15 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Mathews County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

230212302523035230452305023056230662306823076231092311923128231302313823163

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Mathews County

Mathews County shares a land border with 2 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Mathews County. The largest neighbor is Gloucester County (217.8 mi²) and the smallest is Middlesex County (130.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Mathews County forms a block of 434.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.8%.

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

Mathews County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 12 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 460 areas the size of Mathews County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 9.27 miles (14.9 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 Mathews County?

Mathews County has more land than 127 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 Mathews County at #2,948 nationally by total area, 147 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 65.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 64.7 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 Mathews 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.