Virginia County Map with Cities and Towns [VA, US]

Virginia County Directory With Seats and FIPS Codes

Virginia organizes local geography through counties and independent cities. If you are used to provinces (il) and districts (ilçe), a county is the cleanest comparison: a practical unit for records, services, and data. The directory below lists every Virginia county with its county seat, year formed, and the county FIPS code used across many public datasets.

Independent Cities and County Seats

Virginia is well known for its independent city structure. A city is not inside a county, even if it is surrounded by one. This is why you may see a county seat listed as a city name. It matters when you sort addresses or match datasets.

Virginia Regions Often Used In County Research

Counties are official units. Regions are informal, yet they help you think spatially. When you filter a list, these broad labels can cut your time in half.

• Northern Virginia for dense suburban counties near the national capital area.
• Shenandoah Valley for counties aligned with the valley corridor and mountain ridges.
• Piedmont for rolling landscapes between the mountains and coastal plain.
• Tidewater and Hampton Roads for coastal counties and large port metro areas.
• Southside for counties along the southern band of the state.
• Southwest for Appalachian counties with strong ridge and valley geography.
• Eastern Shore for the peninsula counties across Chesapeake Bay.

Practical Ways To Use County Information

Once you know the county, your search becomes sharper. The trick is to choose a stable identifier, then keep it consistent across everything you collect.

1. For addresses and mailing lists: store both county name and FIPS so merges are painless.
2. For mapping: match boundary files by the county FIPS rather than by spelling.
3. For research notes: record the county seat since many county level offices are located there.
4. For trip planning: use counties to group nearby towns and natural areas without jumping between unrelated places.

Common County Level Fields In Datasets

• County Name plus a normalized version for sorting
• County FIPS (3 digit within Virginia or 5 digit full code)
• Seat or administrative center
• Land Area and Water Area when the dataset supports geography
• Population and Housing when the dataset tracks demographics

Virginia At A Glance Beyond Counties

Virginia sits on the U.S. East Coast and is often described as a bridge between the Mid Atlantic and the Southeast. The state includes coastal plains, river systems, rolling uplands, and mountain ridges. That variety explains why county sizes, shapes, and settlement patterns feel different from one region to the next.