THE CHARLES COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Chesapeake Rolling Coastal Plain setting.
Charles County has 457.8 square miles of land in Maryland. 2 mapped landscape regions meet across Charles County: Chesapeake Rolling Coastal Plain, Chesapeake-Pamlico Lowlands and Tidal Marshes.
Irregular plains of sand, silt and clay support a mix of pine and hardwood landscapes. The region has more relief than the lower coastal plain, with generally gentle stream gradients.
Regional context: Southeastern Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Charles County intersects 2 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Chesapeake Rolling Coastal Plain90.5%
- Chesapeake-Pamlico Lowlands and Tidal Marshes9.5%
Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain in Charles County
Low coastal plains contain terraces, estuaries, marshes and barrier islands. Unconsolidated sediments underlie this varied coastal setting, with forest patterns changing near streams and low-lying areas.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Charles County
The atlas lists 13 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Charles County, including Waldorf, Bensville, Bryans Road. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Charles County by land and water
The Census records 185.1 square miles of water within Charles County, or 28.8% of its total area. That share is close to Charles County’s 28.8%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Charles County has 2,488.1 times the land area of nearby Port Tobacco Village town (0.18 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Calvert County, Prince George's County, St. Mary's County within Maryland. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

