Greater Richmond Region Explained

Richmond-Petersburg
Official Name:Richmond, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area
Settlement Type:Metropolitan statistical area
Map Alt:Map of Richmond-Petersburg
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:United States
Subdivision Type1:State(s)
Subdivision Type2:Largest city
Subdivision Name2:Richmond
Subdivision Type3:Other cities
Subdivision Name3:
Unit Pref:US
Area Total Sq Mi:4367
Population Total:1,314,434[1]
Population Rank:44th-largest in the U.S.
Demographics Type2:GDP
Demographics2 Footnotes:[2]
Demographics2 Title1:MSA
Demographics2 Info1:$93.615 billion (2022)

The Greater Richmond Region, also known as the Richmond metropolitan area or Central Virginia, is a region and metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Virginia, centered on Richmond. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines the area as the Richmond, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) used by the U.S. Census Bureau and other entities. The OMB defines the area as comprising 17 county-level jurisdictions, including the independent cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights.[3] As of 2020, it had a population of 1,314,434, making it the 44th largest MSA in the country.

The Greater Richmond Region is located in the central part of Virginia. It straddles the Fall Line, where the coastal plain and the Piedmont come together on the James River at Richmond and the Appomattox River at Petersburg. The English established each as a colonial port in the 17th century. The Greater Richmond Metro region is considered to be the southern extension of the Northeast megalopolis.[4]

Political subdivisions and communities

Independent cities

Since a state constitutional change in 1871, all incorporated cities in Virginia have been independent cities and are not legally located in any county. The OMB considers these independent cities to be county-equivalents to define MSAs in Virginia. Each MSA is listed by its counties, then cities, each in alphabetical order and not by size.

The area includes four independent cities (listed in order of population):

The three smaller cities (Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights) are located near each other in an area south of Richmond and are known collectively as the "Tri-cities".

Counties

The following counties are included in the Richmond MSA:

Incorporated towns

Selected unincorporated towns and communities

The Richmond-Petersburg metropolitan area includes many unincorporated towns and communities.

Note: This is only a partial listing.

Population

The Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes three other cities (Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights) and adjacent counties, is home to approximately 1.3 million Virginians or 15.1% of Virginia's population.[5] The Richmond region is growing steadily, adding nearly 400,000 residents in the past two decades. This has resulted in major suburban sprawl, particularly in Henrico and Chesterfield Counties, which have populations over 300,000. This also resulted in boosts in its economy, the building of malls, more national attention, and major sporting events and concerts coming to Richmond. Its arts and culture scene has also seen a major gain, with the building or renovations of many new arenas, including the Landmark Theater, Carpenter Center, CenterStage, and the creation of an art walk, the First Fridays Art Walk, occurring on the first Friday of every month on Broad Street in Downtown Richmond, drawing crowds of over 20,000 people. The population has seen its ups and downs, with the city of Richmond itself dropping a bit below 200,000 but coming back in 2008 to 204,000 people again.

The region is located approximately equidistant from Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Lynchburg. The area is home to the state's center of gravity of population—which, in 1980, was located thirty miles west of Richmond near the Powhatan-Goochland County border.

The median age for the MSA was 36.7 years. For people reporting one race alone, 66 percent were White; 30 percent were Black or African American; less than 0.5 percent were American Indian and Alaskan Native; 2.75 percent were Asian; less than 0.5 percent were Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and 1 percent were some other race. One percent reported two or more races. Three percent of the people in the Richmond/Petersburg MSA were Hispanic. Sixty-three percent of the people in the Richmond/Petersburg MSA were White non-Hispanic. People of Hispanic origin may be of any race. The median house income for the MSA was $59,468. The median family income was $65,289. The Per Capita income was $27,887. In 2004, seven percent of people were in poverty. Poverty status is determined by the U.S. Census Bureau and is based on family composition, size, and income level. In the Richmond/Petersburg MSA, nine percent of children under age 18 were below the poverty line, and eightpercent of people 65 years old and over were below the poverty line. Five percent of allfamilies, and 15 percent of families with a female householder and no husband present had incomes below the poverty level. The unemployment rate was 4.6%.[6]

In 2004, there were 397,000 households in the Richmond/Petersburg MSA. The average household size was 2.6 people.[6] In 2004, 85 percent of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school, and 33 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher. Among people 16 to 19 years old, nine percent were not in school; they were not enrolled and had not graduated from high school.

County2021 Estimate2020 CensusChangeAreaDensity
Chesterfield County423sqmi
Henrico County237.65sqmi
Richmond City59.92sqmi
Hanover County469sqmi
Prince George County265sqmi
Petersburg City22.72sqmi
Powhatan County260sqmi
Dinwiddie County504sqmi
Goochland County281sqmi
New Kent County210sqmi
Hopewell City10.35sqmi
Colonial Heights City7.52sqmi
King William County274sqmi
Amelia County355sqmi
Sussex County490sqmi
King and Queen County315sqmi
Charles City County183sqmi
Total4367.16sqmi

Transportation

See also: Transportation in Richmond, Virginia.

Travel and tourism

Expressways and Interstate highways

Several of the most heavily traveled highways in the state transverse the area, which includes the junctions of Interstate 64 (which runs east-west), and Interstate Highways 85 and 95 (which run north-south). A comprehensive network of Interstate bypasses and spurs and several non-interstate expressways also serve the area. Tolls fund several of these local roads, although tolls have long been removed from the area's first limited access highway, the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike, which opened in 1958 and now forms a portion of I-95 and I-85. I-295 opened in 1992. It was the last segment of Virginia's interstate system, forming an eastern bypass of Richmond and Petersburg.

Railway network

The Richmond-Petersburg region is also located along several major rail lines operated by CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, and the Buckingham Branch Railroad.

The area has four passenger stations served by Amtrak:

The Department of Rail and Public Transportation of the State of Virginia has studies underway for extending high-speed passenger rail service to the Virginia Peninsula and South Hampton Roads areas with a rail connection at Richmond to service along both the Northeast Corridor and the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor. https://web.archive.org/web/20051114095519/http://www.drpt.state.va.us/projects/current/hampton.aspx.

Another project, known as Transdominion Express, would extend from Richmond west to Lynchburg and from Washington, DC (Alexandria) south via an existing Virginia Railway Express route to Manassas, extending on south to Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Roanoke and Bristol on the Tennessee border. https://web.archive.org/web/20050924092950/http://www.drpt.state.va.us/downloads/files/bristolmap.gif

Sea and airport facilities

An international deepwater terminal is located at the Port of Richmond [7] on the James River which is navigable for shipping to Hampton Roads, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Richmond International Airport is located in Henrico County, five miles east of the city center. The airport serves domestic destinations, primarily in the Midwest, South, and Northeast, and as recently as the 2010s, it served international destinations, including Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas.

In recent years, it has seen remarkable growth in demand, adding non-stop routes such as San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Phoenix–Sky Harbor, with seasonal routes to Providence and Minneapolis/St. Paul, among other destinations.

Politics

The Virginia State Capitol is in the historic Capitol Square. Also, the new U.S. Courthouse was opened in 2010, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is located in Richmond, as well, along with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Richmond itself and Petersburg are strongly Democratic. The suburbs began trending Republican nationally as early as the 1950s; Henrico County, for instance, went Republican in every election from 1952 to 2004.[8] However, conservative Byrd Democrats continued to hold most suburban local offices and state legislative seats well into the 1980s. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democrat to carry the metropolitan area in decades. Since then, it has remained Democratic at the presidential level and, along with northern Virginia, has kept the state of Virginia in the Democratic column.

Presidential election results
YearGOPDEMOthers
202043.0% 325,53754.8% 414,329 2.2% 16,520
201642.3% 271,50752.0% 333,376 5.7% 36,712
201246.4% 289,12752.2% 325,265 1.4% 8,694
200846.5% 291,30452.8% 330,528 0.7% 4,369
200455.0% 287,810 44.4% 232,2400.6% 3,239
200054.4% 239,734 43.1% 189,8672.6% 11,269
199650.6% 200,687 42.4% 168,1906.9% 27,387
199244.9% 184,241 40.0% 164,11615.0% 61,538
198862.4% 224,861 36.7% 132,2770.9% 3,406
198464.1% 231,956 35.4% 128,0440.5% 1,792
198055.9% 178,936 39.5% 126,2454.6% 14,797
197653.8% 155,979 44.1% 127,6932.1% 6,044
197270.5% 176,154 27.8% 69,5981.7% 4,185
196846.5% 109,988 30.8% 72,87622.7% 53,648
196455.1% 103,295 44.9% 84,1840.1% 144
196058.4% 75,523 40.9% 52,9450.7% 905

Economy

The applicable Metropolitan Statistical Area for the Richmond-Petersburg region is the Richmond, VA MSA. The Richmond MSA employs a total of approximately 677,000 workers.[9] In order of the number of workers, the major employment categories of the region are services; retail trade; manufacturing; state government; finance, insurance and real estate; local government; construction; wholesale trade; transportation and public utilities and federal government. Important manufacturing categories include tobacco, chemicals, printing and publishing, paper, and wood products.

This economic diversity, typical of the entire Richmond-Petersburg region, helps insulate it from hardship due to economic fluctuation in particular sectors of the economy. The region's central location also allows it to benefit from growth in other regions of Virginia and the state as a whole.

Economic and community development

Several economic and community development entities, both public and private, serve the Greater Richmond area. Government-linked entities such as the Greater Richmond Partnership bring together elected leadership of local government with leaders from business and industry to coordinate initiatives to foster economic prosperity.[10] In the non-profit sector, The Community Foundation for a greater Richmond, one of the largest Community Foundations in the country, supports a wide range of projects with both competitive results-based grants and donor-directed philanthropy as well as more than 60 academic scholarship programs.[11]

See also

References

  1. Web site: Demographics - 2020 Census.
  2. Web site: Total Real Gross Domestic Product for Richmond, VA (MSA). fred.stlouisfed.org.
  3. Revised Delineations of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Micropolitan Statistical Areas, and Combined Statistical Areas, and Guidance on Uses of the Delineations of These Areas. Executive Office of the President. July 21, 2023. July 21, 2023. July 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230721214234/https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/OMB-Bulletin-23-01.pdf. live.
  4. Web site: Northeast - America 2050. dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081103095351/http://www.america2050.org/northeast.html . 2008-11-03 .
  5. https://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/CBSA-est2007-annual.html Estimates of Population Change for Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Rankings: July 1, 2007 to July 1, 2008
  6. Web site: Richmond/ Petersburg Metropolitan Statistical Area Demographic Fact Sheet. Richmond Regional Planning District Commission. 27 January 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20151019211807/http://www.richmondregional.org/Publications/Reports_and_Documents/Planning/RIPE/Ric-Ptrsbrgfactsheet.pdf. 19 October 2015. dead.
  7. Web site: Richmond VA >Port of Richmond. 7 May 2016.
  8. [Chuck Todd|Todd, Chuck]
  9. Web site: Richmond: Virginia's Working Capital . 29 April 2023.
  10. Web site: Greater Richmond Partnership: Our vision . 11 May 2017 . 7 October 2020.
  11. Web site: Community Foundation for a greater Richmond . Guidestar . 7 October 2020.

External links

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