Tazewell County area

Population and density of Tazewell County

The Census Bureau estimates that 38,635 people lived in Tazewell County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,241 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #48 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 40,438, the population has declined by 1,803 (−4.5%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 518.8 square miles of land, that is 74 people per square mile (29 per km²), placing Tazewell County #1,215 nationally for density and #85 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 8.6 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 Tazewell County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Tazewell County. Together they are home to 15,443 people (40%); the other 23,192 (60%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Richlands town, with 5,051 residents in the county. The county seat, Tazewell town, has 4,291 residents. By land, Bluefield town is the largest at 9.495 mi².

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

Metropolitan area

Tazewell County is a central county of the Bluefield, WV-VA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 96,138 residents on 937.8 square miles of land; Tazewell County accounts for 55.3% of the land and 40.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #199 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #41 by population.

ZIP codes

18 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Tazewell County; 15 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

243142431624377246012460224604246052460624609246122461324622246302463524637246392464124651

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 Tazewell County

Tazewell County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in West Virginia. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is McDowell County (533.5 mi²) and the smallest is Bland County (357.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Tazewell County forms a block of 3,256.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 15.9%.

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

Tazewell 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 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 76 areas the size of Tazewell County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 22.8 miles (36.7 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 Tazewell County?

Tazewell County has more land than 1,211 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 Tazewell County at #2,103 nationally by total area, 92 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 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 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 Tazewell 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.