News & Announcements

Lunenburg County has a population problem. The number is dropping and is expected to keep falling over the next 25 years. Despite a small increase from 2020 to the present day, a new study from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service projects that Lunenberg will see some severe losses over the next 26 years.

Baby boomers known as “halfbacks” transform southern Appalachia.

The United States population is projected to grow at a somewhat slower rate over the same time period — by 14%, according to the National Population Projections published by the Demographics Research Group at the University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a monumental shift to remote and hybrid work, decoupling jobs from traditional office locations and transforming local economies across Virginia.

A recent study by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service studied how school enrollment trends have changed following the pandemic. Chesapeake is seeing fluctuating numbers, but they’re trending up compared to to other school divisions in the 757.

According to data provided by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, Harrisonburg’s elderly population is expected to surpass 8,000 by 2030, making up nearly 12 percent of the city’s total population.

The 2023 Virginia county and city population estimates released Jan. 29 by the Weldon Cooper Center show clearly that rural areas such as Martinsville and Henry County are not only attracting the public’s attention, but beginning to make a significant impact on the landscape of the region’s demographics.

Prince William County Public Schools leaders provided insight this week into their decision to recommend a delay in construction of the county’s 14th high school, citing a projected slowdown in enrollment growth.

Despite an influx of new residents, Mecklenburg County’s population has declined in the three years since the last census was conducted in 2020.

Between 2020 and 2023, Mecklenburg County lost 0.3 percent of its population, from 30,319 in 2020 to 30,232 — an estimated 87 people — primarily because the number of deaths exceeded the number of births. The findings were published by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia as part of an ongoing study of Virginia population trends between each ten-year census count.