
Virginia · FIPS 51057
Essex ZIP codes — Essex County, Virginia
Quick answer
Essex County is home to 10,604 residents with a median household income of $56,481 and a median home value of $228,600. 68.9% of households own their home and 15.5% of residents live below the poverty line. Looking for a Essex ZIP code? 7 ZIP code areas fall inside Essex County, Virginia, listed in full below.
- Population
- 10,604Essex County residents
- Median household income
- $56,481Past 12 months, inflation adjusted
- Median home value
- $228,600Owner-occupied units
- Median gross rent
- $967Rent plus utilities, monthly
- Median age
- 47.1 yrsAll residents
- Homeownership rate
- 68.9%Owner-occupied households
Essex County, VA in context
How this area compares with national benchmarks.
Essex County is a mid-size town in Virginia, with 10,604 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates. The median age here is 47.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.
Households in Essex County earn a median of $56,481 a year, 28.1% below the national figure of $78,538. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 15.5% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.
The typical owner-occupied home in Essex County is valued at $228,600, 24.7% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $967 a month, 31.2% below the national figure, or roughly $11,604 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.5% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 68.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.
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.
ZIP codes in Essex County
ZIP code tabulation areas whose land area falls mostly in Essex County.
How to read this page
What these estimates cover.
Figures are five-year rolling averages from the American Community Survey, not single-year counts, so they describe conditions across 2019-2023 ACS 5-year rather than a single date. Median home value covers owner-occupied units as valued by their owners, and median gross rent includes utilities the renter pays. Small counties carry wide margins of error; treat single-dollar differences between neighbouring counties as noise.
Source: US Census Bureau, ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimates · rates as published for 2019-2023 ACS 5-year
Cities and towns in Virginia
Largest Census places in Virginia by population.
- Virginia Beach city 457,066
- Chesapeake city 251,153
- Arlington CDP 235,463
- Norfolk city 235,037
- Richmond city 227,595
- Newport News city 184,774
- Alexandria city 156,788
- Hampton city 137,334
- Roanoke city 98,677
- Portsmouth city 97,299
- Suffolk city 96,638
- Lynchburg city 79,255
Nearby counties
Other counties in Virginia.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about this area.
- What is the population of Essex County?
- Essex County has 10,604 residents on Census ACS 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates.
- What is the median household income in Essex County?
- Median household income in Essex County is $56,481 a year, 28.1% below the national figure of $78,538.
- How much does it cost to rent or buy in Essex County?
- Median gross rent is $967 a month and the median home value is $228,600, so rent absorbs about 20.5% of median household income.
- Is Essex County affordable compared with the rest of the US?
- Homes cost about 4× the local median income here versus roughly 3.9× nationally, so Essex County is less affordable to buy in than the typical US market, and rent takes 20.5% of median income against the 30% cost-burden line.
- How current is this Essex County data?
- All figures come from the US Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year five-year estimates. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.