ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
Immigration continued to be a key factor in the recent population growth of Northern Virginia, according to the 1995 population report of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Throughout Virginia, 16.5 percent of the state's population gain since 1990 is attributed to people who moved here from other countries. Immigrants comprised 70,851 of the state's 429,161 new residents from 1990 to 1995. The Census Bureau estimated there were 6.6 million Virginians in 1995.
In Southwest and Southside Virginia, counties and cities continued a trend of slow growth or population loss, particularly in counties along the West Virginia border.
Southwest Virginia's population losses mirror the region's shrinking manufacturing base, said Thomas Johnson, a specialist in rural economic development at Virginia Tech.
``In Southwest and rural Virginia, we depend a lot on agriculture, forestry and mining and much less on service jobs as an employment base,'' Johnson said.
``When you lose mining jobs and manufacturing jobs, the amount of income lost in your community does not support much growth in your service sectors,'' Johnson said. ``It's a double-whammy for the communities that are losing those jobs.''
Many of the mid-decade population trends outlined by the Census Bureau in its report show a continuation of the patterns evident in Virginia during the 1970s and 1980s: older cities continuing to lose residents to surrounding counties, and population gains heavily tilted toward the state's eastern half.
Other trends include the expansion of the elderly population, aged 65 or older, at a far faster pace in Northern Virginia's small cities than younger age groups.
In Falls Church, the over-65 set grew from 15 percent of that city's 1990 population to 18 percent of its estimated 1995 population. Fairfax, Alexandria and Manassas Park also saw large increases in their elderly populations.
Retirees now make up one-fifth of the population of many of the state's smaller cities, among them Martinsville, Bristol, Galax, Clifton Forge, Covington and Bedford.
For Virginia, the over-65 group grew from 10.7 percent of the state's total population in 1990 to 11.1 percent of its 1995 population. Still, Virginia remains a relatively young state, ranking 42nd in the nation for its proportion of elderly to the total population.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB