Petersburg city area

Population and density of Petersburg city

The Census Bureau estimates that 33,734 people lived in Petersburg city on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,385 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #53 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 33,464, the population has grown by 270 (+0.8%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 22.7 square miles of land, that is 1,485 people per square mile (573 per km²), placing Petersburg city #118 nationally for density and #28 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 0.431 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 Petersburg city

Every resident of Petersburg city lives within Petersburg city. The city and the county equivalent cover the same territory, 22.7 square miles of land in the 2026 place Gazetteer, so there are no separate towns or unincorporated areas to list.

Metropolitan area

Petersburg city is a central county of the Richmond, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 17 county equivalents have 1,389,338 residents on 4,367.8 square miles of land; Petersburg city accounts for 0.5% of the land and 2.4% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #62 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #45 by population.

ZIP codes

2 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Petersburg city; 0 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2380323805

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 Petersburg city

Petersburg city shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Dinwiddie County (503.8 mi²) and the smallest is Colonial Heights city (7.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Petersburg city forms a block of 1,222.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 1.9%.

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

Petersburg city has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 46 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 1,738 areas the size of Petersburg city.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 4.77 miles (7.7 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 Petersburg city?

Petersburg city has more land than 39 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 Petersburg city at #3,193 nationally by total area, 10 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 percentage points lower. 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 Petersburg 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.