Sussex County area

Population and density of Sussex County

The Census Bureau estimates that 10,755 people lived in Sussex County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,434 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #114 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 10,839, the population has declined by 84 (−0.8%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 490.2 square miles of land, that is 22 people per square mile (8.5 per km²), placing Sussex County #2,256 nationally for density and #128 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 29 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 Sussex County

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Sussex County. Together they are home to 3,015 people (28%); the other 7,740 (72%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Waverly town, with 1,936 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

Sussex 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; Sussex County accounts for 11.2% of the land and 0.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #62 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #45 by population.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Sussex County; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

2383023837238422384723867238822388423888238902389123897

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 Sussex County

Sussex County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Southampton County (599.2 mi²) and the smallest is Prince George County (265.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Sussex County forms a block of 2,433 mi² of land, of which it holds 20.1%.

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

Sussex County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.1 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 81 areas the size of Sussex County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.1 miles (35.6 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 Sussex County?

Sussex County has more land than 1,099 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 Sussex County at #2,211 nationally by total area, 88 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% — 0.6 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 Sussex 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.