Sussex County, Virginia: Black Belt county. In 2024, voted D+4%. Democratic peak: D+75 in 1936.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- D+4MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Black BeltAkashic typology
- Population
- 10,7652024 5-year
- Median household income
- $63,5302024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 40.7%2024 5-year
- Black
- 54.1%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 1.1%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+75 in 1936MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+46 in 1972MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Brunswick County, VA · similarity 0.99
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Sussex CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Sussex County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | −34.0% |
| 1896 | +29.4% |
| 1900 | +25.9% |
| 1904 | +46.0% |
| 1908 | +56.4% |
| 1912 | +67.0% |
| 1916 | +66.4% |
| 1920 | +53.3% |
| 1924 | +63.6% |
| 1928 | +17.4% |
| 1932 | +68.6% |
| 1936 | +75.0% |
| 1940 | +63.5% |
| 1944 | +58.4% |
| 1948 | +30.3% |
| 1952 | +3.7% |
| 1956 | +3.3% |
| 1960 | +27.1% |
| 1964 | +13.3% |
| 1968 | +11.5% |
| 1972 | −46.0% |
| 1976 | +27.8% |
| 1980 | +18.3% |
| 1984 | +4.8% |
| 1988 | +3.5% |
| 1992 | +15.7% |
| 1996 | +18.8% |
| 2000 | +6.7% |
| 2004 | +12.2% |
| 2008 | +23.8% |
| 2012 | +24.6% |
| 2016 | +16.3% |
| 2020 | +11.9% |
| 2024 | +4.3% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | 2,498 | 2,289 | 4,826 | ||
| D | 2,827 | 2,219 | 5,088 | ||
| D | 2,879 | 2,055 | 5,044 | ||
| D | 3,358 | 2,021 | 5,440 | ||
| D | 3,301 | 2,026 | 5,363 | ||
| D | 2,420 | 1,890 | 4,345 | ||
| D | 2,006 | 1,745 | 3,906 | ||
| D | 2,089 | 1,378 | 3,792 | ||
| D | 2,193 | 1,527 | 4,253 | ||
| D | 1,958 | 1,822 | 3,896 | ||
| D | 2,408 | 2,183 | 4,731 | ||
| D | 2,447 | 1,664 | 4,273 | ||
| D | 2,497 | 1,360 | 4,094 | ||
| R | 1,901 | 5,222 | 7,214 | ||
| D | 1,541 | 1,105 | 3,794 | ||
| D | 2,469 | 1,888 | 4,364 | ||
| D | 1,253 | 713 | 1,993 | ||
| D | 851 | 785 | 1,997 | ||
| D | 956 | 888 | 1,851 | ||
| D | 614 | 244 | 1,220 | ||
| D | 773 | 201 | 980 | ||
| D | 737 | 164 | 903 | ||
| D | 880 | 126 | 1,006 | ||
| D | 688 | 122 | 825 | ||
| D | 547 | 385 | 932 | ||
| D | 607 | 132 | 747 | ||
| D | 548 | 166 | 717 | ||
| D | 486 | 96 | 587 | ||
| D | 435 | 59 | 561 | ||
| D | 412 | 115 | 527 | ||
| D | 253 | 93 | 348 | ||
| D | 733 | 430 | 1,169 | ||
| D | 769 | 418 | 1,193 | ||
| R | 291 | 638 | 1,022 | ||
| — | — | — | — | ||
| — | — | — | — | ||
| — | — | — | — | ||
| — | — | — | — |
Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
English
8.6%
American
7.1%
Irish
5.7%
German
3.8%
Italian
1.2%
French
0.9%
Scottish
0.8%
African American
43.3%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
Sample size too small to break out by ancestry reliably.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 40.8 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$63,530
Sussex County ranks near the middle of US counties.
Sussex County$63,530
Virginia$93,170
United States$80,734
Sussex County ranks near the middle of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
11.6%
Children face moderate poverty.
Children under 1818.0%
Working age (18–64)9.2%
Seniors (65+)18.2%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
98.1%
speak English only
Spanish0.9%
Other Indo-European0.6%
Other languages0.3%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 63.1% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Sussex is one of Virginia's least populous counties, yet its majority-Black electorate has made it a consistent Democratic-leaning outlier in a Southside region that otherwise tilts sharply Republican, with 2024's D+4.4 margin continuing that pattern.
The Democratic margin here reached seventy-five points in 1936. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved eight points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was four points. The recent movement, modest against a deep Democratic baseline, mirrors a broader rightward drift across the Black Belt.
The economic context is part of the story: a median household income of $63,530 and a 12% poverty rate. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Brunswick County and Athens County.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Sussex County, Virginia. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/51183/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More in Virginia
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Frequently asked questions
How did Sussex County, Virginia vote in 2024?
In 2024, Sussex County, Virginia voted Democratic by 4.3 points (D+4), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 4,826 votes cast, 2,498 went Democratic and 2,289 went Republican.
What is Sussex County, Virginia's political typology?
Akashic places Sussex County, Virginia in the "Black Belt" typology — Black-majority counties of the rural South — long the most Democratic ground in the region, now trending Republican at the margins. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 32 times, Republican 2 times, and other 0 times.
When did Sussex County, Virginia last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Sussex County, Virginia voted Republican was 1972.
How many people live in Sussex County, Virginia?
Sussex County, Virginia has a population of 10,765 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Sussex County, Virginia?
Median household income in Sussex County, Virginia is $63,530 — below the national median of $80,734. The Virginia state median is $93,170.
What is the political history of Sussex County, Virginia?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Sussex County, Virginia from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 32 went Democratic and 2 went Republican. The county's typology — "Black Belt" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.