Extensive information on the distribution of islands formed during submonolayer deposition is provided by the joint probability distribution (JPD) for island sizes, s, and capture zone areas, A. A key ingredient determining the form of the JPD is the impact of each nucleation event on existing capture zone areas. Combining a realistic characterization of such spatial aspects of nucleation with a factorization ansatz for the JPD, we provide a concise rate equation formulation for the variation with island size of both the capture zone area and the island density.