Richmond, VA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
380 ft 115 m280 ft 85 m240 ft 70 m140 ft 45 m47 ft 14 m0 ft 0 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Richmond sits at about 190 ft (55 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
190 ft 55 m
most residents: 98–230 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
on the south side
Highest
380 ft 115 m
on the west side
Average
170 ft 50 m
all land inside city limits
Richmond spans about 380 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 190 ft55 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the west side | 380 ft115 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the south side | 0 ft0 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Richmond | 210 ft65 m |
| Airport (RIC) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 3.8 mi southeast of the city limits | 168 ft51 m |
| Average of all land | 170 ft50 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
10 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Independent city in Virginia, United States
- Population
- 233,655 2024 est.
- Land area
- 59.9 sq mi + 2.6 sq mi water
- Density
- 3,899 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 37.5538° N, 77.4603° W
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Piedmont
- Drains to
- James River → Atlantic Ocean
- Airport
- Richmond International (RIC) 168 ft
- ZIP codes 16
- 23173 23219 23220 23221 23222 23223 23224 23225 23226 23227 23230 23231 23234 23235 23284 23298
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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Bon Air320 ft
- Manchester250 ft
- Laurel230 ft
- Tuckahoe230 ft
- Dumbarton220 ft
- Lakeside190 ft
- Richmond190 ft
- Chamberlayne180 ft
- Mechanicsville170 ft
- East Highland Park170 ft
- Montrose160 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in Virginia526th highest of 700
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Peters Mountain1,800 ft
- Shooters Hill, Goochland County230 ft
- Sliding Hill220 ft
- Gambles Hill190 ft
- Marion Hill160 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −320 ft at 37.4915° N, 77.4254° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.