Fairfax County, Virginia

Fairfax County
County
Tysons Mount Vernon mansion Fairfax County Government Center CIA headquarters in Langley Dulles International Airport
Flag Seal Logo
Location within the U.S. state of Virginia
Virginia's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 38°50′N 77°17′W / 38.83°N 77.28°W / 38.83; -77.28
Country	United States
State	Virginia
Founded	June 19, 1742
Named for	Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Seat	Fairfax (independent city)1
Largest town	Herndon
Area
• Total	406 sq mi (1,050 km2)
• Land	391.02 sq mi (1,012.7 km2)
• Water	15.47 sq mi (40.1 km2)  3.8%
Population  (2020)
• Total	1,150,309
• Density	2,941.82/sq mi (1,135.84/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Codes	20120, 20121, 20122, 20124, 20151, 20152, 20153, 20164, 20166, 20170, 20171, 20172, 20190, 20191, 20192, 20194, 20195, 20196, 22003, 22009, 22015, 22018, 22019, 22027, 22030, 22031, 22032, 22033, 22035, 22037, 22038, 22039, 22041, 22042, 22043, 22044, 22046, 22060, 22066, 22067, 22079, 22081, 22082, 22101, 22102, 22106, 22116, 22121, 22124, 22150, 22151, 22152, 22153, 22158, 22159, 22160, 22161, 22180, 22181, 22182, 22183, 22185, 22199, 22203, 22204, 22205, 22206, 22207, 22213, 22302, 22303, 22304, 22306, 22307, 22308, 22309, 22310, 22311, 22312, 22315
Area code	703, 571
Congressional districts	8th, 10th, 11th
Website	www.fairfaxcounty.gov
1 Administrative and court offices are located in unincorporated areas in Fairfax County

Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. With a population of 1,150,309 as of the 2020 census,^[1] it the most populous county in Virginia, the most populous jurisdiction in the Washington metropolitan area, and the most populous location in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. The county seat is Fairfax; however, because it is an independent city under Virginia law, the city of Fairfax is not part of the county.^[2]

The county is part of the Northern Virginia region and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. The county is predominantly suburban with some urban and rural pockets. It borders Montgomery County, Maryland to its north, Falls Church, Alexandria, Arlington County, and Prince George's County, Maryland to its east, Charles County, Maryland to its southeast, Prince William County to its southwest, and Loudoun County to its northwest.

The county is home to the offices of the Director of National Intelligence (in McLean) and the headquarters of four U.S. intelligence agencies: the Central Intelligence Agency (at the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (in Springfield), the National Reconnaissance Office (in Chantilly), and the National Counterterrorism Center (in McLean). In academia, the county is home to the flagship campus of George Mason University (in Fairfax), CIA University (in Chantilly), Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis (in Reston), and several Northern Virginia Community College campuses. In the private sector, ten of the Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the county as of 2023.^[3]

As of 2020, Fairfax County's median household income of $127,866 is the fifth-highest in the nation.