Warren County area

Warren County, Virginia covers 217.9 square miles: 214.6 square miles of land and 3.314 square miles of water. Its county seat is Front Royal. An estimated 42,740 people lived there in 2025.

Official Census measurements · GEOID 511872026 Gazetteer · retrieved September 27, 2026
Land area214.6 mi²
Water area3.314 mi²
Population (2025)42,740
People per mi²199

County outline

Generalized outline of Warren County, Virginia
2025 Census cartographic boundary, fitted to this frame. County maps are not at a common scale. The 2026 area measurements below come from the separate Gazetteer release. Map source and limitations.

Where Warren County is located

Warren County highlighted on a map of all U.S. county equivalents. About the maps

Area breakdown

Land accounts for 98.5% of Warren County’s measured area and water for 1.5%. Its combined area converts to 564.3 square kilometers or approximately 139,447 acres.

Green: land · blue: water

MeasurementSquare milesSquare kilometersAcres
Land214.572555.739137,326.1
Water3.3148.5832,121
Total217.886564.322139,447

How Warren County compares

By original Census land area, Warren County ranks #84 of 133 in Virginia and #2976 of 3,222 nationally. National rankings include the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Its land area is 0.692 times the Virginia county-equivalent median of 310 square miles. It accounts for 0.5% of the combined county land area in the state.

See the complete Virginia ranking · What counts as a county equivalent?

Population and density of Warren County

The Census Bureau estimates that 42,740 people lived in Warren County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,158 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #43 of 133 in Virginia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 40,721, the population has grown by 2,019 (+5%), compared with +2.9% for Virginia as a whole.

With 214.6 square miles of land, that is 199 people per square mile (77 per km²), placing Warren County #642 nationally for density and #53 in Virginia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Virginia median is 109. Put another way, there are about 3.2 acres of land per resident.

Estimated population, 2020–2025 · line scaled to this county’s own range
July 1202020212022202320242025
Estimate40,79640,98641,42441,98342,48442,740
Change—+190+438+559+501+256

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 Warren County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Warren County. Together they are home to 15,722 people (36.8%); the other 27,018 (63.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Front Royal town, with 15,722 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Warren County is an outlying county of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the Arlington-Alexandria-Reston, VA-WV metropolitan division. Its 23 county equivalents have 6,465,724 residents on 6,033.7 square miles of land; Warren County accounts for 3.6% of the land and 0.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #35 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #7 by population. It belongs to the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area.

County equivalentPopulation 2025Land mi²
Fairfax County1,167,873391
Montgomery CountyMaryland1,074,582493.1
Prince George's CountyMaryland970,374482.6
District of ColumbiaDistrict of Columbia693,64561.1
Prince William County502,966335.3
Loudoun County449,749515.7
Frederick CountyMaryland302,883660.7
Arlington County243,93126
Charles CountyMaryland176,593457.8
Stafford County170,803268.5
Alexandria city160,66214.9
Spotsylvania County155,388401.9
Fauquier County76,503648
Jefferson CountyWest Virginia63,102209.3
Culpeper County57,666379.2
Manassas city44,3329.8
Warren County42,740214.6
Fredericksburg city30,39310.5
Fairfax city26,7726.2
Manassas Park city16,5603
Clarke County15,609176
Falls Church city15,1592
Rappahannock County7,439266.4

ZIP codes

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Warren County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

22610226302264222645226552265722663

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 Warren County

Warren County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Fauquier County (648 mi²) and the smallest is Clarke County (176 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Warren County forms a block of 2,536.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 8.5%.

Map of Warren County and the 6 county equivalents that border it Shenandoah County, Virginia: 508.1 mi² landRappahannock County, Virginia: 266.4 mi² landFauquier County, Virginia: 648 mi² landFrederick County, Virginia: 413.1 mi² landClarke County, Virginia: 176 mi² landPage County, Virginia: 310 mi² land
Warren County (dark) and its bordering county equivalents. Select a neighbor to open its profile. Drawn from the 2025 Census cartographic boundaries in an equal-area projection. How borders are determined.
Bordering county equivalentLand mi²Size vs. WarrenCompare
Fauquier County6483× largerCompare
Shenandoah County508.12.4× largerCompare
Frederick County413.11.9× largerCompare
Page County3101.4× largerCompare
Rappahannock County266.41.2× largerCompare
Clarke County1761.2× smallerCompare

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

Warren County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.8 times as much. Virginia’s county land could hold about 184 areas the size of Warren County.

Land area: Warren County and the closest-sized states
Warren County214.6 mi²
Rhode Island1,033.9 mi²

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 14.6 miles (23.6 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 Warren County?

Warren County has more land than 246 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

Land area compared with the typical county equivalent
Warren County214.6 mi²
Virginia median310 mi²
National median604.5 mi²

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 Warren County at #2,997 nationally by total area, 21 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 1.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.4 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 Warren County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Land rankCounty equivalentLand mi²Comparison
#2975Clay County, North Carolina215Compare
#2976Warren County, Virginia214.6This county
#2977St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana214.5Compare

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.

Representative coordinates

The Census internal point is 38.908221, -78.207594. It represents a location inside the geography; it is not necessarily the centroid or the address of a courthouse.

Source and precision

U.S. Census Bureau, 2026 Gazetteer Files, Counties. Original ALAND: 555,738,467 m²; AWATER: 8,583,335 m². Rankings use ALAND; exact ties use ascending GEOID. Tables preserve Census-published square miles to three decimals, with conversions based on those values.

Download the official county source ZIP ↗ · Methodology

Common questions

How big is Warren County?

Warren County, Virginia has 214.6 square miles (555.7 km²) of land and 3.314 square miles of water, for a total area of 217.9 square miles. It ranks #2976 of 3,222 U.S. county equivalents by land area.

Is Warren County the largest county in Virginia?

No. Warren County ranks #84 of 133 in Virginia by land area. The largest is Pittsylvania County, with 969 square miles of land.

What counties border Warren County?

Warren County shares a land border with Shenandoah County, Rappahannock County, Fauquier County, Frederick County, Clarke County, and Page County.

What is the population of Warren County?

The Census Bureau estimates Warren County had 42,740 residents on July 1, 2025, ranking #1,158 of 3,222 county equivalents. That is 199 people per square mile of land.

What is the county seat of Warren County?

The county seat of Warren County is Front Royal.

Is Warren County part of a metropolitan area?

Yes. It is an outlying county of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has 23 county equivalents and 6,465,724 residents.

How many ZIP codes are in Warren County?

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Warren County, and 3 of them have most of their land inside the county. Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas approximate USPS ZIP Code areas.

How does Warren County compare with U.S. states?

It has less land than every state. Rhode Island, the smallest, has 4.8 times as much land.

How many acres of land are in Warren County?

The land measurement converts to approximately 137,326 acres. Including water, total area is approximately 139,447 acres. One square mile equals 640 acres.

Why might another source show a different area?

Check whether it reports land or total area, its Census vintage, and its rounding. Our guide explains how to reconcile county area figures.

Can this establish a property boundary?

No. Statistical measurements and generalized maps do not establish property lines. Consult the relevant local surveying or land-records authority.

Cite this county

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