Stafford is a census-designated place (listed as Stafford Courthouse) in and the county seat of Stafford County in the northern part of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. The population as of the 2010 United States Census was 4,239. It lies 10 miles (16 km) north of Fredericksburg, approximately 40 miles (64 km) south of metropolitan Washington, D.C., and about 60 miles (97 km) north of Richmond, the Commonwealth capital (Connor, 2003).