Norfolk is Virginia's second-largest incorporated city in the Commonwealth of Virginia andone of few urban areas in Virginia showing a resurgence in population, with an estimated population of over a quarter million.

Norfolk is located in the Hampton Roads region, named for the large natural harbor, Norfolk Harbor, located at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Norfolk is one of nine cities and seven counties that constitute the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, officially known as the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA. The city is bordered to the west by the Elizabeth River and to the north by the Chesapeake Bay. It also shares land borders with the independent cities of Chesapeake to its south and Virginia Beach to its east. One of the oldest of the Seven Cities of Hampton Roads, Norfolk is considered to be the historic, urban, financial, and cultural center of the region.

The city has a long history as a strategic military and transportation point. Norfolk is home to both the Norfolk Naval Base, the world's largest naval base, and corporate headquarters of the Norfolk Southern Railway, one of North America's principal Class I railroads. As it is surrounded by multiple bodies of water, Norfolk has many miles of riverfront and bayfront property. It is linked with its neighbors by an extensive network of Interstate highways, bridges, tunnels, and bridge-tunnel complexes.