Norfolk city area

Population and density of Norfolk city

The Census Bureau estimates that 231,013 people lived in Norfolk city on July 1, 2025. That ranks #314 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #10 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 238,090, the population has declined by 7,077 (−3%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 53.3 square miles of land, that is 4,336 people per square mile (1,674 per km²), placing Norfolk city #25 nationally for density and #6 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 0.148 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 Norfolk city

Every resident of Norfolk city lives within Norfolk city. The city and the county equivalent cover the same territory, 53.3 square miles of land in the 2026 place Gazetteer, so there are no separate towns or unincorporated areas to list.

Metropolitan area

Norfolk city 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; Norfolk city accounts for 1.7% of the land and 12.9% 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 Norfolk city; 14 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

234622350223503235042350523507235082350923510235112351323517235182352323551

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 Norfolk city

Norfolk city shares a land border with 3 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Chesapeake city (338.5 mi²) and the smallest is Portsmouth city (33.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Norfolk city forms a block of 669.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 8%.

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

Norfolk city has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 19 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 741 areas the size of Norfolk city.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 7.30 miles (11.7 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 Norfolk city?

Norfolk city has more land than 98 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 Norfolk city at #3,112 nationally by total area, 12 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 44.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 43.6 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 Norfolk 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.