Another Look at Virginia’s Lagging Population Growth

Image credit: StatChat blog

After decades as one of the nation’s fast-growth states, Virginia’s population now is growing line with national averages, according to data found in Hamilton Lombard’s latest post on the University of Virginia Demographics Research Group’s StatChat blog.

Lombard attributes the lagging population growth to out-migration resulting from the impact of federal budget austerity on Northern Virginia’s defense-oriented technology sector. Despite this slowdown, NoVa is adding to the state’s population faster than any other region in Virginia because its population skews younger — more women are in the child-bearing age. Indeed, since 2010, NoVa has added more people than the rest of the state combined.

The Richmond region has added the second largest number of people since 2000. And despite its lagging economy, Hampton Roads has contributed substantially to population growth. However, due to emigration of young people, an aging population, and fewer births, population growth in Virginia outside the urban crescent has collapsed since 2010.

Writes Lombard: “Without a surge in population growth, by 2020 Virginia could have close to 200,000 fewer residents than would have been expected based on past population growth trends. Meanwhile, Virginia’s aging population will likely cause the number of counties with more deaths than births to continue to increase, slowing population growth throughout the Commonwealth, even in Northern Virginia.”