Powhatan County area

Population and density of Powhatan County

The Census Bureau estimates that 32,591 people lived in Powhatan County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,419 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #56 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 30,341, the population has grown by 2,250 (+7.4%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 260.2 square miles of land, that is 125 people per square mile (48 per km²), placing Powhatan County #852 nationally for density and #63 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 5.1 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 Powhatan County

Powhatan County has no incorporated cities, towns or villages. All 32,591 of its residents live in unincorporated communities, which the Census Bureau describes as census-designated places rather than municipalities.

Metropolitan area

Powhatan County is an outlying 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; Powhatan County accounts for 6% of the land and 2.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #62 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #45 by population.

ZIP codes

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

2311223113231202313923160

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 Powhatan County

Powhatan County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Powhatan County. The largest neighbor is Chesterfield County (423.5 mi²) and the smallest is Goochland County (283 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Powhatan County forms a block of 1,622 mi² of land, of which it holds 16%.

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

Powhatan County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 152 areas the size of Powhatan County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 16.1 miles (26 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 Powhatan County?

Powhatan County has more land than 335 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 Powhatan County at #2,922 nationally by total area, 35 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 0.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 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 Powhatan 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.