NEW VIRGINIA POPULATION ESTIMATES RELEASED


	Between April 1, 1990 and July 1, 1996, Virginia is
estimated to have grown by about 8 percent, gaining about 488,000
additional residents, according to the University of Virginia's
Weldon Cooper Center.  Compared to the 1980s, more localities -- 109
out of 135 -- are growing, but growth remains largely concentrated
in the northern part of the state, particularly in Metropolitan
Statistical Areas (MSAs).
	Taken together, the 10 fastest-growing localities --
Loudoun, Stafford, Fluvanna, York, Powhatan, Greensville,
Spotsylvania, Greene, Chesapeake, and Hanover -- accounted for
nearly a third of this growth, said Julia H. Martin, director of
demographic and workforce research.  All but one of the counties are
located in a metropolitan area -- three in the Virginia portion of
the Washington DC MSA, and two each in the Charlottesville,
Richmond, and Norfolk MSAs.  Greensville, the only nonmetropolitan
county in the top 10, grew primarily from the opening of a large
prison, which in 1996 housed over 2,900 inmates.
	This continuing trend toward the metropolitanization of
Virginia's population is also reflected by the fact that taken
together, the state's eight metropolitan areas accounted for 86
percent of all its growth, Martin said.  In fat, just the two
largest MSAs -- Northern Virginia and Norfolk -- accounted for 64
percent.
	At the other end of the rural-urban scale, counties with
populations classified in the 1990 census as entirely rural
accounted for only 10 percent of the state's growth, and 10 of these
counties, including four in the far Southwest, are estimated to have
lost population.
	Many of Virginia's independent cities have also lost
population since 1990.  Of the 40 cities, 16 are smaller than they
were in 1990.  These include several of the state's largest cities
-- Norfolk, Richmond, Portsmouth and Roanoke, for example -- which
are losing population even though their surrounding suburbs continue
to grow.  But this pattern is not only a metropolitan one.  While
all counties that contain cities grew by 62 percent, the cities
within these counties grew by only 0.2 percent, reflecting the
inability of such cities to expand their land areas and the location
of new development outside city boundaries.
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December 23, 1996
	For additional information, Martin may be reached at (804)
977-6025 before Jan. 1 and (804) 982-5581 thereafter.