The magnetization states of 20-nm-thick rectangular Co thin-film elements are studied with micromagnetic modeling and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism photoemission electron microscopy. The energies of ten domain configurations obtained in the modeling are compared with the frequency of occurrence of the corresponding virgin domain structures as a function of aspect ratio from 1:1 to 1:3 and of width from 200 to 600 nm. The results show that the abundance of the virgin states is largely determined by the magnetic energy densities of the elements.