Suffolk city area

Population and density of Suffolk city

The Census Bureau estimates that 104,699 people lived in Suffolk city on July 1, 2025. That ranks #606 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 94,431, the population has grown by 10,268 (+10.9%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 399.2 square miles of land, that is 262 people per square mile (101 per km²), placing Suffolk city #558 nationally for density and #49 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 2.4 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 Suffolk city

Every resident of Suffolk city lives within Suffolk city. The city and the county equivalent cover the same territory, 399.2 square miles of land in the 2026 place Gazetteer, so there are no separate towns or unincorporated areas to list.

Metropolitan area

Suffolk city is an outlying county of the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 18 county equivalents have 1,797,213 residents on 3,201.9 square miles of land; Suffolk city accounts for 12.5% of the land and 5.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #96 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #38 by population. It belongs to the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

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

2332123432234332343423435234362343723438

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 Suffolk city

Suffolk city shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in North Carolina. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Southampton County (599.2 mi²) and the smallest is Portsmouth city (33.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Suffolk city forms a block of 2,266.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.6%.

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

Suffolk city has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.6 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 99 areas the size of Suffolk city.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 20 miles (32.2 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 Suffolk city?

Suffolk city has more land than 692 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 Suffolk city at #2,451 nationally by total area, 79 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 6.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 5.8 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 Suffolk 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.