Chesapeake, VA population, income and ZIP codes

Chesapeake city is a mid-size city in Virginia, with 251,153 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #2 of 688 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 37.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Chesapeake city earn a median of $94,189 a year, 19.9% above the national figure of $78,538 and 13% above the $82,986 median for the 383 Virginia cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 8.7% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Chesapeake city is valued at $359,100, 18.4% above the national figure and 23% above the $291,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,523 a month, 8.3% above the national figure, or roughly $18,276 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19.4% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 73.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.