Septic soil in Richmond city, VA, by the numbers
Very limited
79.2% of Richmond city, VA's surveyed soil comes back "Very limited" in USDA's own SSURGO data, the county's dominant condition for a septic absorption field. A standard gravity system routinely fails on ground like this; the same share of the county falls in USDA's worst absorption-field bucket outright. Richmond city, VA is 59.925 square miles with a population of 233,655.
What Richmond city's reading doesn't cover
This is a countywide, area-weighted figure across every soil survey map unit in Richmond city, VA - never a reading for one specific parcel. A local percolation test, typically $750-$1,850 (around $1,300 typical), is the only way to know what one lot in Richmond city will actually do.
What a system would cost here
With 79.2% of Richmond city rating "Very limited", a standard gravity system is not a safe assumption here. The engineered-system range, $10,000-$40,000 (mound or aerobic treatment), is the more realistic number to plan around, against $3,000-$8,000 for a conventional system on the rare lot that passes.
Where this sits nationally
Nationally, Richmond city, VA is the 2,077-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Virginia alone it ranks 46 of 110.
Related guides
How this rating is built, and its real limits · Conventional vs. engineered septic systems