Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County is a county in Virginia, United States, directly south of Richmond across
the James River. It had a population of 364,548 at the 2020 census, an estimated 397,148 by 2025,
and covers 437 square miles (1,130 km2) centred near 37°23′N 77°35′W.

Chesterfield Court House is the county seat; its postal code is 23832. The county has no
incorporated towns or cities of its own — every named place on this list is a
census-designated place or an unincorporated community, and Chesterfield County government
serves all of them directly. The county holds 13 census-designated places plus the historic
courthouse settlement, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 51041.

Towns & Villages in Chesterfield County

Chesterfield County has 14 named places on record: 13 census-designated places (CDPs) and the
courthouse village that gives the county its seat. CDP stands for census designated place, a
Census Bureau statistical area with no municipal government of its own; Virginia counties rarely
incorporate towns the way Northern states do, and Chesterfield has none at all.

The 13 CDPs above hold 150,381 people between them, a little over four in ten county residents
— the rest live in unincorporated land outside any named CDP boundary. Two names on this
list get confused with places outside the county: Manchester CDP, in northern Chesterfield along
the James River, is not the Manchester neighbourhood of the independent city of Richmond next
door, and Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg — all bordering Chesterfield —
are independent cities with their own governments, not Chesterfield County communities. The
courthouse village itself was counted as its own CDP through the 2000 census but was dropped from
that status before 2010, so the table above carries no current population figure for it.

ZIP Codes

• 23832 — Chesterfield Court House (also serves 23838, a nearby Chesterfield rural ZIP)
• 23831 — Chester (also serves 23836)
• 23836 — Enon (shared with Chester)
• 23112 — Midlothian, Brandermill and Woodlake (also serves 23113 and 23114 for Midlothian)
• 23235 — Bon Air (also serves 23225 and 23236, shared with Manchester and Rockwood)
• 23225 — Manchester
• 23236 — Rockwood
• 23803 — Ettrick (a Petersburg mailing address, though Ettrick is not part of the city)

Meadowbrook, Bellwood, Bensley and Matoaca have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is
delivered under a neighbouring town’s code.

Geography

Chesterfield County sits on Virginia’s fall line, where the Piedmont’s low hills meet the flat
coastal plain, and its terrain runs from rolling ground in the west to level lowland near the
rivers in the east. Of its 437 square miles, 423 are land and 14 are water, about 3.2 percent.
The James River forms the county’s entire northern border, the Appomattox River its entire
southern border, and Swift Creek Reservoir, impounded in 1965 to serve Brandermill and Woodlake,
is the largest inland body of water.

Henrico County and the independent city of Richmond lie to the north, Charles City County to
the east, Prince George County and the independent city of Hopewell to the southeast, the
independent cities of Colonial Heights and Petersburg to the south, Dinwiddie County to the
south, Amelia County to the southwest, Powhatan County to the west, and Goochland County to the
northwest across the James River. Henrico County, Charles City County, Prince George County, Dinwiddie County, Amelia County, Powhatan County and Goochland County all have their own
pages on this site; Richmond, Hopewell, Colonial Heights and Petersburg are independent cities
outside the county system.

Demographics

Chesterfield County had a population of 364,548 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate
puts the county near 397,148 residents by 2025. Chester and Meadowbrook are the two largest CDPs,
together holding roughly 44,000 residents. Median household income runs $101,931 as of 2024,
well above Virginia’s statewide figure of $89,931 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to
862 people per square mile of land, 333 per km2 — dense for a Virginia county outside an
independent city, reflecting its place inside the Richmond metropolitan area.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 26,914 people,
followed by retail trade at 19,398 and educational services at 18,144. Amazon operates a
fulfillment center at the Meadowville Technology Center near Enon, one of the county’s largest
private employers, alongside UPS, Walmart, Kroger and DuPont’s Specialty Products plant. HCA
Virginia Health System runs hospital operations that rank among the county’s biggest employers,
and Capital One maintains a large credit-processing operation locally. Brightpoint Community
College, formerly John Tyler Community College, sits in Chester and enrolled nearly 13,000
students in 2020–21. Virginia State University, a historically Black institution founded in
1882, sits in Ettrick on the Appomattox River.

History

Virginia’s colonial assembly formed Chesterfield County on 25 May 1749, carving it out of
Henrico County. It was named for Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, an English
politician who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Midlothian, in the county’s west, was the site of the first commercially mined coal in the
American colonies, worked from the early 1700s. To move that coal to market, the county built
Virginia’s first hard-surfaced toll road, the Manchester Turnpike, completed in 1807, and its
first railroad, the Chesterfield Railroad, in 1831 — both engineering firsts for the
Virginia colony and later commonwealth. During the Civil War, Confederate forces held defensive
lines through the county, including positions near Drewry’s Bluff on the James River, and fighting
reached Chester in 1864 as Union forces pressed toward Petersburg and Richmond.

Getting There

Interstate 95 crosses the county’s east side through Chester and Enon, Interstate 295 loops
through the northeast corner, and the Route 288 toll road runs along the west and south. US 1, US
60, US 301 and US 360 also cross the county.

• Richmond — about 10 miles north
• Petersburg — about 15 miles south
• Colonial Heights — about 10 miles south
• Hopewell — about 15 miles southeast

Richmond International Airport, in Henrico County about 20 miles northeast of Chesterfield
Court House, is the nearest major commercial airport. Amtrak’s Northeast Regional, Carolinian,
Palmetto and Silver Meteor trains stop at the Staples Mill Road station in Henrico County, about
20 miles north.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Chesterfield County located?
It sits on Virginia’s fall line directly south of Richmond, between the James River on the north
and the Appomattox River on the south.

What is the population of Chesterfield County?
364,548 at the 2020 census, with an estimate near 397,148 by 2025.

How big is Chesterfield County?
437 square miles (1,130 km2), of which 423 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Chesterfield County?
Chesterfield Court House, home to the 1917 county courthouse listed on the National Register of
Historic Places.

How many towns and villages are in Chesterfield County?
Thirteen census-designated places — Chester, Meadowbrook, Midlothian, Bon Air,
Brandermill, Manchester, Rockwood, Bellwood, Woodlake, Ettrick, Bensley, Enon and Matoaca —
plus the courthouse village itself. None are incorporated towns or cities.

What ZIP codes does Chesterfield County use?
23832 for the courthouse area, 23831 and 23836 for Chester and Enon, 23112 through 23114 for
Midlothian and Brandermill, 23225 and 23235-23236 for Manchester, Bon Air and Rockwood, and 23803
for Ettrick.

What is Chesterfield County known for?
The first commercially mined coal in the American colonies, dug at Midlothian from the early
1700s, and Virginia’s first railroad, built in 1831 to haul that coal to market.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Virginia.