Richmond city area

Population and density of Richmond city

The Census Bureau estimates that 237,257 people lived in Richmond city on July 1, 2025. That ranks #308 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #9 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 226,522, the population has grown by 10,735 (+4.7%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 59.9 square miles of land, that is 3,959 people per square mile (1,529 per km²), placing Richmond city #31 nationally for density and #9 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 0.162 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 Richmond city

Every resident of Richmond city lives within Richmond city. The city and the county equivalent cover the same territory, 59.9 square miles of land in the 2026 place Gazetteer, so there are no separate towns or unincorporated areas to list.

Metropolitan area

Richmond 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; Richmond city accounts for 1.4% of the land and 17.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #62 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #45 by population.

ZIP codes

17 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Richmond city; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2311323173232192322023221232222322323224232252322623227232302323123234232352328423298

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 Richmond city

Richmond city shares a land border with 2 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Richmond city. The largest neighbor is Chesterfield County (423.5 mi²) and the smallest is Henrico County (233.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Richmond city forms a block of 717.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.4%.

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

Richmond city has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 17 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 659 areas the size of Richmond city.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 7.74 miles (12.5 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 Richmond city?

Richmond city has more land than 105 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 Richmond city at #3,141 nationally by total area, 24 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 4.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 3.1 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 Richmond 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.