A recent survey conducted by the UVA Weldon Cooper Center found that Virginia’s population growth has slowed since the pandemic. Virginia, which has claimed to be the front yard of Washington DC, the capital of the United States, has grown steadily since the Civil War, but in 2023, population growth fell by nearly half, recording the lowest growth rate in 150 years.<\/p>\n
Analysis suggests that although the decline in the overall birth rate has had an impact, the number of people leaving Virginia has increased due to soaring real estate prices and high living costs. According to UVA data, Virginia previously recorded a population growth rate of 3 to 4 percent, but the population growth rate will decline to less than 1 percent in 2023.<\/p>\n
This change was noticeable due to the impact of the pandemic, and \u201cas telecommuting increased, many people left Virginia and moved to places like Raleigh, North Carolina, or Charlotte, which are cheaper,\u201d he explained. In the past, Virginia grew faster than other regions due to the large number of people immigrating from other states, but recently, people are flocking to other southern states.<\/p>\n
As the population movement triggered by the pandemic moves from large cities to small cities and from urban centers to suburban areas, Richmond and Bristol continue to grow in Virginia, while Northern Virginia is decreasing. There are many professionals in cities who can work from home, and it is easy for them to move to other areas.<\/p>\n
In the past, only 6 to 7 percent of workers worked from home, but during the pandemic, that number jumped to a third, and in Northern Virginia, to 50 percent. A real estate official said, \u201cHousing costs are the biggest burden for almost everyone,\u201d and \u201cDuring the pandemic, real estate prices in Fairfax and Arlington counties have skyrocketed, making people look to other distant areas that they had not even considered before.\u201d<\/p>\n
For this reason, the fastest growing city in Virginia was Winchester, adjacent to Northern Virginia, and the area north of the Chesapeake Bay also saw notable population growth. Additionally, the slowdown in Virginia’s population growth is due not only to migration to less expensive areas, but also to the continued decline in birth rates.<\/p>\n
According to UVA data, there were 27,000 more newborns than deaths in 2019, but the gap narrowed to 13,000 in 2022. The issue of low birth rate began to be discussed in 2007, but over the past 5 to 10 years, as the young population has decreased and people over 65 have become the mainstream, it is raising serious concerns such as labor shortage. The UVA professor who conducted the survey predicted, \u201cThe number of high school graduates is still relatively stable, but it will begin to decrease in the future,\u201d and warned, \u201cIf this change occurs, we will face a very different world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"