Virginia cities and towns

This directory lists every place the US Census Bureau tabulates in Virginia, ranked from the largest to the smallest by population. Incorporated cities, towns and villages appear alongside census-designated places (CDPs) — unincorporated communities that have no local government of their own but are counted separately because they have a recognised name and settled population. The suffix in each name ("city", "town", "village", "CDP") is the Census legal/statistical description, which is why you will see entries such as "Virginia Beach city".

The largest place in Virginia is Virginia Beach city with 457,066 residents, and the 688 places on this page hold 5,988,897 people between them. Median household income across the listed places runs from $2,499 to $250,001, and median home values range from $14,600 to $1,342,400 — a spread that shows how much local housing markets diverge inside a single state.

Every figure comes from the American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year five-year estimates, which average survey responses over sixty months. That averaging is what makes small towns measurable at all, but it also means the numbers describe the period as a whole rather than today. Blank cells are estimates the Census suppressed because the local sample was too small to publish reliably. Select any place to open its full profile with affordability ratios, poverty and homeownership rates, and links to nearby communities of similar size.

Virginia splits between a handful of population centres — 35% of its 5,988,897 counted residents live in the ten largest places — and a long tail of smaller communities. 17 places pass 50,000 residents, while 300 sit below a thousand. The median row holds just 1,277 residents. At that scale margins of error widen sharply, and a single large household or seasonal population can shift a median.

Buying is a little easier here than nationally: Virginia's median place shows $247,400 in home value on $71,313 of income, a ratio of 3.5 against 3.9 across the country. Median gross rent runs $1,162 including utilities, or about 20% of median household income annually.

Incomes fan out sharply inside Virginia. Strip the outliers and the top-decile place still earns 4.13× the bottom-decile one ($162,007 against $39,191); include them and McLean CDP tops the list at $250,001 and Lee Mont CDP anchors the bottom at $2,499. A single "Virginia average" is averaging across two different economies.

About one row in 6 is incomplete — 107 of 688 places have a suppressed estimate, almost all of them at the small end. Five-year estimates average responses over sixty months, so what is published is a stable baseline rather than a reading of this month's market.

How many places does Virginia have? 688 appear in the current federal tabulation, counting incorporated cities, towns and villages together with census-designated places — unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. 44% of them have fewer than a thousand residents, so the list is far longer than the number of towns you would recognise by name.

Which Virginia row should I compare mine against? Pick places within roughly the same population band. In a state this spread out, size drives the housing and income figures more than region does.

How current is this? Every figure comes from the American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year release published by the US Census Bureau, ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimates. It reflects the full survey window rather than a single date, and it is the most recent vintage available for places this small.