Graphic credit: StatChat
by James A. Bacon
Population growth in Virginia in the 2010s so is slower than at any time since the 1920s, when African-Americans were fleeing Jim Crow conditions for economic opportunity in northern states, according to this chart published by Hamilton Lombard on the StatChat blog. Will the slowdown continue, or is it temporary — an artifact of a slow economic recovery that can be expected to resume in future years?
The issue is of more than academic importance. Multibillions of dollars in infrastructure investments are predicated upon the proposition that Virginia’s population and economy will continue growing at historical rates. If the population doesn’t grow, projected demand for highways, mass transit, water & sewer, electricity and other utilities go up in smoke.
Another confounding question: Insofar as growth does occur, where will it occur — on the metropolitan periphery, as in the past, or in the urban core? Another chart by Lombard shows how dramatically the trend lines have shifted. Has state and local government begun correcting for these shifts, or is everyone flying on auto-pilot, assuming that past trends will continue forever? Just asking.
Graphic credit: StatChat
