Rockingham County area

Population and density of Rockingham County

The Census Bureau estimates that 89,316 people lived in Rockingham County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #678 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #24 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 83,769, the population has grown by 5,547 (+6.6%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 849.8 square miles of land, that is 105 people per square mile (41 per km²), placing Rockingham County #948 nationally for density and #68 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 6.1 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 Rockingham County

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Rockingham County. Together they are home to 23,055 people (25.8%); the other 66,261 (74.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bridgewater town, with 6,924 residents in the county. By land, Elkton town is the largest at 3.162 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Broadway town grew fastest since then (+6.8%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Rockingham County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Rockingham County is a central county of the Harrisonburg, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 140,155 residents on 867.1 square miles of land; Rockingham County accounts for 98% of the land and 63.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #298 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #307 by population. It belongs to the Harrisonburg-Staunton-Stuarts Draft, VA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

22 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Rockingham County; 18 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

22801228022281122812228152282022821228272283022831228322283422840228412284422846228492285022853244412447124486

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 Rockingham County

Rockingham County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents, including 2 in West Virginia. It has more land than 7 of them. The largest neighbor is Augusta County (967.1 mi²) and the smallest is Harrisonburg city (17.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Rockingham County forms a block of 4,807.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.7%.

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

Rockingham County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.2 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 46 areas the size of Rockingham County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 29.2 miles (46.9 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 Rockingham County?

Rockingham County has more land than 2,241 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 Rockingham County at #1,082 nationally by total area, 101 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 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.7 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 Rockingham 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.