Demographic trends

A Fairfax County state legislator responds to a previous Cardinal News column about net out-migration from Northern Virginia with possible explanations.

The fastest-growing part of the state is now the Richmond area. There’s also some evidence that young adults are moving into many rural areas.

Only nine other states are seeing more net out-migration than we are. Numerically, the problem is entirely because of people moving out of Northern Virginia.

Not surprisingly, the number of remote workers soared, but they weren’t distributed evenly. The question now is how the shape of the remote worker economy will evolve as some, but not all, workers go back to the office — and others decide they can move wherever they want.

The county is still losing population because deaths outnumber births but it’s seen a decided shift in migration patterns.

Rural Virginia doesn’t lose an unusual percentage of young adults. The problem is that it doesn’t attract others to replace them the way urban areas do.