THE GLOUCESTER COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Rolling Coastal Plain setting.
Gloucester County has 217.8 square miles of land in Virginia. 2 mapped landscape regions meet across Gloucester County: 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
Gloucester County intersects 2 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Rolling Coastal Plain74.6%
- Chesapeake-Pamlico Lowlands and Tidal Marshes25.4%
Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain in Gloucester 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 Gloucester County
The atlas lists 2 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Gloucester County, including Gloucester Point, Gloucester Courthouse. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Gloucester County by land and water
The Census records 70.2 square miles of water within Gloucester County, or 24.4% of its total area. That share is close to Gloucester County’s 24.4%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Gloucester County has 23.2 times the land area of nearby Gloucester Point CDP (9.4 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets James City County, King and Queen County, Mathews County, Middlesex County, York County within Virginia. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

