The Commonwealth of Virginia is divided into 95 counties, along with 38

independent cities An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

that are considered county-equivalents for census purposes. The map in this article, taken from the official United States Census Bureau site, includes Clifton Forge and Bedford as independent cities. This reflected the political reality at the time of the 2000 Census. However, both have since chosen to revert to town status. In Virginia, cities are co-equal levels of government to counties, but towns are part of counties. For some counties, for statistical purposes, the

Bureau of Economic Analysis The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the United States Department of Commerce is a U.S. government agency that provides official economy of the United States, macroeconomic and industry statistics, most notably reports about the gross domestic ...

combines any independent cities with the county that it was once part of (before the legislation creating independent cities took place in 1871). Many county seats are politically not a part of the counties they serve; under Virginia law, all municipalities incorporated as cities are

and are not part of any county. Some of the cities in the

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...

area ( Virginia Beach,

Chesapeake Chesapeake often refers to: *Chesapeake people, a Native American tribe also known as the Chesepian * The Chesapeake, a.k.a. Chesapeake Bay *Delmarva Peninsula, also known as the Chesapeake Peninsula Chesapeake may also refer to: Populated plac ...

, Newport News, Hampton, and

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

) were formed from an entire county. These cities are no longer county seats, since the counties ceased to exist once the cities were completely formed, but are functionally equivalent to counties. Also in Virginia, a county seat may be an independent city surrounded by, but not part of, the county of which it is the administrative center; for example,

Fairfax City The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. At the 2010 census the p ...

is both the county seat of Fairfax County and is completely surrounded by Fairfax County but the city is politically independent of the county. There are 38 independent cities, which are considered county-equivalents for census purposes. Many

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

are as large as cities, but are not incorporated as cities and are situated within a parent county or counties. Seven independent cities had 2020 populations of less than 10,000 with the smallest, Norton having a population of only 3,687."Population and Area of All Virginia Local Governments, 1790-2010"
Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development website. 19 April 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2013. In 2020, the largest towns were Leesburg (with 48,250 people) and Blacksburg (44,826). Six other towns also had populations of over 10,000 people. For a complete list of these towns, see List of towns in Virginia. For major unincorporated population centers, see

List of unincorporated communities in Virginia This is a list of unincorporated communities in the Commonwealth of Virginia that are not incorporated as independent cities or towns . Bolded places are census-designated places; there are 362 of them as of the 2010 United States Census. ...

. Virginia's independent cities were classified by the Virginia General Assembly in 1871 as cities of the first class and cities of the second class."Former Second Class Cities in Virginia"
Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development website. 19 April 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2013. The Virginia Constitution of 1902 defined first class cities as those having a population of 10,000 or more based upon the last census enumeration while second class cities were those that had a population of less than 10,000. Cities that previously been granted a city charter, but did not have the requisite population, had their status grandfathered in. Second class did not have a court of record and were required to share the cost of that court with their adjacent county and also shared the cost for three constitutional officers of that court—generally, the clerk, commonwealth attorney and sheriff—and those shared officers stood for election in both the city and the county. At least two constitutional officers—treasurer and commissioner of the revenue—were required to be elected solely by the residents of the city. The distinction between first and second class cities was ended with the Virginia Constitution of 1971. However, cities that were classified as second class cities at the time of the adoption of the 1971 Virginia Constitution were authorized to continue sharing their court system and three constitutional officers with the adjacent county. , 14 of Virginia's independent cities retain these features. There are several counties and cities that have the same name, but are separate politically. These currently include Fairfax, Franklin, Richmond, and Roanoke. In the past they also included Norfolk and Alexandria, whose counties changed their names, ostensibly to end some of the confusion; as well as Bedford, where a city was surrounded by a county of the same name from 1968 until 2013, when the city reverted to town status. A city and county that share a name may be completely unrelated in geography. For example, Richmond County is nowhere near the City of Richmond, and Franklin County is even farther from the City of Franklin. More Virginia counties are named for women than in any other state. Virginia's postal abbreviation is VA and its FIPS state code is 51. List of the 95 counties in the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

of Virginia (links shown under FIPS County Code are for the U.S. Census Bureau Statistics Info Page for that county):