Richmond, Virginia

Richmond
State capital and independent city
Downtown skyline along the James River St. John's Episcopal Church Monument Avenue Main Street Station Virginia State Capitol Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Flag Seal
Nickname(s):  "RVA",[1] "River City"[2][failed verification]
Motto(s):  Latin: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars)
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Coordinates: 37°32′27″N 77°26′12″W / 37.54083°N 77.43667°W / 37.54083; -77.43667
Country	United States
State	Virginia
Named for	Richmond, London
Government
• Mayor	Levar Stoney (D)
Area [3]
• City	62.57 sq mi (162.05 km2)
• Land	59.92 sq mi (155.20 km2)
• Water	2.65 sq mi (6.85 km2)
Elevation [4]	213 ft (65 m)
Population  (2020)
• City	226,610
• Rank	100th in the United States 4th in Virginia
• Density	3,782/sq mi (1,484.75/km2)
• Urban	1,059,150 (US: 44th)
• Urban density	2,067.3/sq mi (798.2/km2)
• Metro	1,339,182 (US: 44th)
Demonym	Richmonder
GDP [5]
• Richmond (MSA)	$93.615 billion (2022)
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Codes	23173, 23218–23242, 23249–23250, 23255, 23260–23261, 23269, 23273–23274, 23276, 23278–23279, 23282, 23284–23286, 23288–23295, 23297–23298
Area codes	804 and 686
FIPS code	51-67000[6]
GNIS feature ID	1499957[4]
Website	rva.gov
Nomenclature evolution Prior to 1071 – Richemont: a town in Normandy, France. 1071 to 1501 – Richmond: a castle town in Yorkshire, UK. 1501 to 1742 – Richmond, a palace town in London, UK. 1742 to present – Richmond, Virginia.

Richmond (/ˈrɪtʃmənd/ RICH-mənd) is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city since 1871. The city's population in the 2020 census was 226,610, up from 204,214 in 2010,^[7] making it Virginia's fourth-most populous city.^[8] The Richmond metropolitan area, with over 1.3 million residents, is the Commonwealth's third-most populous.

Richmond is located at the James River's fall line, 44 mi (71 km) west of Williamsburg, 66 mi (106 km) east of Charlottesville, 91 mi (146 km) east of Lynchburg and 92 mi (148 km) south of Washington, D.C. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, Richmond is at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64 and encircled by Interstate 295, Virginia State Route 150 and Virginia State Route 288. Major suburbs include Midlothian to the southwest, Chesterfield to the south, Varina to the southeast, Sandston to the east, Glen Allen to the north and west, Short Pump to the west, and Mechanicsville to the northeast.^[9][10]

Richmond was an important village in the Powhatan Confederacy and was briefly settled by English colonists from Jamestown from 1609 to 1611.^[11][12] Founded in 1737, it replaced Williamsburg as the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the city, including Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech in 1775 at St. John's Church and the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom written by Thomas Jefferson. During the American Civil War, Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America. The Jackson Ward neighborhood is the city's traditional hub of African American commerce and culture, once known as the "Black Wall Street of America" and the "Harlem of the South."^[13] At the beginning of the 20th century, Richmond had one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems.

Law, finance, and government primarily drive Richmond's economy. The downtown area is home to federal, state, and local governmental agencies as well as notable legal and banking firms. The greater metropolitan area includes several Fortune 500 companies: Performance Food Group, Altria, CarMax, Dominion Energy, Markel, Owens and Minor, Genworth Financial, and ARKO Corp.^[14][15][16] The city is home to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and a Federal Reserve Bank (one of 13 such courts and one of 12 such banks).