Virginia's Changing Demographic Landscape

Virginia

By Oren Savi

My aim in this project was to document some factors in the shifting demographic landscape of Virginia. Popular wisdom in the state is that whichever party the incumbent President belongs to will lose the Statehouse - except in 2013, when democrat Terry McAuliffe won the gubernatorial election despite President Obama’s sagging popularity.

The main focus of these maps is charting Northern Virginia’s changing demographics: the growing population of minorities and younger voters, rising urbanization and integration with the D.C. metro area, and overall population growth throughout the state. The focus on Northern Virginia brought to light a few interesting facts: that the density of businesses, and by extension, one might conjecture, urbanization, is primarily in Fairfax County, Alexandria City, and Arlington County. This is also the area closest to and most integrated with Washington, D.C. Given D.C.’s status as a Democratic stronghold, it makes sense that political leanings would spread across the boarder together with business. I would further theorize that Northern Virginia, and Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria in particular, have more in common with Washington than with most of the rest of the state.

My main regret in this project is that I was unable to find data to highlight changes in the growing tech industry. Northern Virginia has been described as a rising east coast competitor to Silicon Valley, and with the concentration of federal contractors it would have been interesting to examine the nature of the industries prospering in that region, and the kinds of people they may be pulling in through migration.