Scott County area

Population and density of Scott County

The Census Bureau estimates that 21,200 people lived in Scott County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,823 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #80 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 21,574, the population has declined by 374 (−1.7%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 535.8 square miles of land, that is 40 people per square mile (15 per km²), placing Scott County #1,764 nationally for density and #110 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 16 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 Scott County

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Scott County. Together they are home to 3,974 people (18.7%); the other 17,226 (81.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Gate City town, with 2,000 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Scott County is an outlying county of the Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 314,834 residents on 2,010.5 square miles of land; Scott County accounts for 26.7% of the land and 6.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #155 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #170 by population. It belongs to the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Scott County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

242022421924221242302424424245242502425124258242712429037642

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 Scott County

Scott County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 3 in Tennessee. It has more land than 6 of them. The largest neighbor is Washington County (561.2 mi²) and the smallest is Hancock County (222.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Scott County forms a block of 3,532.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.2%.

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

Scott County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.9 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 74 areas the size of Scott County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 23.1 miles (37.3 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 Scott County?

Scott County has more land than 1,272 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 Scott County at #2,044 nationally by total area, 94 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 0.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 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 Scott 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.