Virginia Peninsula

The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the "Southern Neck" to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north.

Hampton Roads is the common name for the metropolitan area that surrounds the body of water of the same name. The land portion of Hampton Roads has been historically divided into two regions, the Virginia Peninsula or Peninsula on the north side, and South Hampton Roads on the south side. (Locally, South Hampton Roads is commonly called "the Southside", which is not to be confused with "Southside Virginia", which is a separate region of the south central portion of Virginia located farther inland.) More recently, the metropolitan area has expanded to include the two southernmost counties of the Middle Peninsula, across the York River from the Virginia Peninsula.

Geographically located at the northwestern reaches, Charles City and New Kent counties are by some reckonings part of the Virginia Peninsula. However, in modern times, they are more often considered part of the Richmond-Petersburg region. The rest of the Virginia Peninsula is all part of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) with a population of about 1.6 million. The Hampton Roads MSA is the seventh largest metropolitan area in the southeastern United States and the largest between Washington, D.C., and Charlotte, North Carolina.