THE SUSSEX COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Rolling Coastal Plain setting.
Sussex County has 490.2 square miles of land in Virginia. 3 mapped landscape regions meet across Sussex County: Rolling Coastal Plain, Northern Outer Piedmont, Mid-Atlantic Flatwoods.
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
Sussex County intersects 3 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Rolling Coastal Plain99.1%
- Northern Outer Piedmont0.8%
- Mid-Atlantic Flatwoods0.1%
Piedmont in Sussex County
The Piedmont is a belt of irregular plains and hills between the Appalachians and the coastal plain. A complex mixture of older rocks underlies its pine and hardwood woodland landscapes.
Read the regional source ↗Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain in Sussex 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 Sussex County
The atlas lists 5 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Sussex County, including Sussex, Waverly, Jarratt. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Sussex County by land and water
The Census records 2.6 square miles of water within Sussex County, or 0.5% of its total area. That share is close to Sussex County’s 0.5%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Sussex County has 104.3 times the land area of nearby Sussex CDP (4.7 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Dinwiddie County, Greensville County, Prince George County, Southampton County, Surry County within Virginia. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

