Richmond, VA

ZIP code 23220 is assigned to Richmond, VA, and falls within City of Richmond County. Like every US postal code, it began as a mail-routing device rather than a geographic boundary — the US Postal Service groups delivery routes under a single code so carriers and sorting equipment can process mail efficiently. Today it also serves as a practical shorthand for the area itself: roughly 34,524 people live inside it.

At 7,139 residents per square mile spread over 4.836 square miles, 23220 reads as a densely built-up area. It is a populous postal code, and density shapes almost everything else on this page — how people get to work, whether they own or rent, and what housing costs.

Household earnings run below the national median. At $56,681, 23220 sits in the lower half, ahead of 26% of them. The US median for comparison is $70,109. Bear in mind that median income describes the midpoint household, not the average — it is not pulled upward by a handful of very high earners the way a mean would be.

Housing in 23220 costs well above the national median. A typical home is valued at $468,900 against a US median of $207,500, and median gross rent runs $1,354 a month. This is firmly renter territory — 67.2% of occupied homes are rented, a pattern typical of city centres, student areas and neighbourhoods with a lot of apartment stock.

The building stock is dominated by detached single-family houses, which account for 39.5% of housing units here. The median construction year is 1946, making the housing here mid-century.

The population skews notably young, with a median age of 28.7 against 42 nationally. The average household holds 2.28 people, and 33.8% are family households.

Getting to work takes 20.6 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is drove alone at 61.6% of workers, while 9.5% walk, 17.6% work from home. Commute patterns are one of the better proxies for how a place actually functions day to day.

Beyond addressing mail, 23220 does a lot of quiet administrative work. Retailers use it to calculate shipping and sales tax at checkout. Insurers use it to set premiums, since risk profiles vary geographically. Employers and marketers use it to define service areas. Government agencies use it to route benefits and organise reporting. If you have ever been asked for a postal code by a form that clearly does not intend to send you anything, this is why.

For anyone weighing a move, 23220 offers a compact profile of Richmond: 34,524 residents, a median household income of $56,681, 58.9% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 7.3%. A handful of figures like these answer more relocation questions than most neighbourhood guides do.

One caution worth repeating: a postal code is not a neighbourhood. 23220 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Richmond may be split across more than one code. Boundaries also shift as USPS adjusts delivery routes. Treat the figures here as describing a delivery area, which is what they actually measure.