STUDY DOCUMENTS THAT VIRGINIA'S SUBURBAN COUNTIES
HAVE HAD HIGHER INCOME GROWTH THAN CITIES AND RURAL AREAS

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 19 -- Virginia's suburban
counties have clearly enjoyed the fastest growth in residents'
income over the past 20 years, while cities and rural areas
generally have had the slowest income growth, a new study by the
University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service
shows.
	The analysis of adjusted gross income totals on state tax
returns by economist Samuel R. Kaplan shows counties adjoining
cities and outer-suburban counties seeing by far the highest average
annual increases in total income from 1974 to 1994, with most cities
clustered in the bottom half of all localities. The disparity would
have been even greater had not a number of cities annexed county
territory.
	"The growth in total income is dramatically seen in the
counties surrounding cities," said Kaplan. "These figures are
another general indicator of the superior economic growth of
suburban counties compared to cities and rural areas in Virginia."
	The analysis is part of the report, "1994 Virginia AGI,"
with income figures for all localities.
	Spotsylvania County, a Fredericksburg suburb with a 13.1
percent average annual increase in total adjusted gross income
(unadjusted for inflation), and James City County, a Williamsburg
suburb with a 12.1 average increase, were the two fastest growing
localities in income over the period. Fredericksburg and
Williamsburg, by contrast, saw increases of only about 7 and 6
percent respectively.
	Buchanan County, with a 2.5 percent annual increase, and the
city of Bristol, with 2.7 percent, both in Southwest Virginia,
ranked lowest in average annual income growth.
	Only two cities, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, ranked in
the top 20 localities in average income growth, and both are
suburban localities adjoining the core city of Norfolk, Kaplan
noted. 	Another dramatic example of disparity in income growth is in
Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County, both now facing
the possibility Charlottesville may revert to town status in order
to become part of Albemarle. In 1974 Charlottesville and Albemarle
had similar total income figures, $178 million and $194 million
respectively. By 1994 Albemarle's total was $1.2 billion but
Charlottesville's was only $491 million, for an annual growth rate
of 9.6 percent for Albemarle versus 5.2 percent for Charlottesville.
	The annual Cooper Center study of state income shows that in
1994 the median adjusted gross income for married couples, important
because it parallels changes in the Census Bureau's median family
income, was $42,577, an increase of 2.4 percent from the previous
year. After adjustment for inflation, the statewide median was
virtually flat. From 1974 to 1994, median AGI in constant dollars
rose an average 0.5 percent annually. 	
	Fairfax County, the populous Washington, D.C. suburb, had
the highest median ($69,282), more than three times greater than
Southwest Virginia's rural Lee County, the lowest ($23,018). 
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November 18, 1996
	For additional information or interviews Samuel Kaplan may
be reached at (804) 982 5819.  Television reporters should call our
TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.