Demographic trends

At least three things could change these projections: higher birth rates, more immigration and more remote work.

Here are some of the highlights: The Lynchburg metro will add more people than the Roanoke and New River valleys combined. Loudoun will add more people in the next 25 than the past 25. But some localities will become shells of their former selves.

New population projections foresee almost every locality in Southwest and Southside Virginia losing population between now and 2050. Buchanan County is expected to lose almost half its population.

The Census Bureau says Fairfax is gaining. The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia says it’s losing. This matters because Northern Virginia is the state’s economic engine that helps subsidize rural schools.

New census data confirms that Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads are continuing to lose people, but the influx of new residents into rural Virginia is keeping the state on the plus side.

Census data shows that job-related moves out of the western part of Virginia mostly involve people moving to other parts of the state.

New census data helps show what’s happening beneath the surface of population trends: Some rural counties have a surprisingly high number of newcomers.

Here are three measures that show how Martinsville has turned itself around.

Here are the numbers that are driving school decisions in both communities.

An analysis of Census Bureau data shows that D.C.-area expatriates are more likely to move to the western part of the state now than they were a dozen years ago.