Small towns are the new hip thing with young people, who have traditionally flocked to urban areas. Hamilton Lombard at UVA's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service says ever since the pandemic, young adults are often bypassing the big city.
"I think that's certainly the story when you look at a place like Arlington, which has really been a mecca for young adults coming out of college in the last couple decades," Lombard says. "It's seen one of the largest drops in the country in its 25-44 population in part because fewer are coming in and more are going out since the pandemic."
He says now that many people don't need to be at an office every day, demographic patterns are shifting away from places like Arlington to places like Winchester or Fredericksburg.
"Generally speaking, we’re still seeing close to a third of all workdays being done remotely. Before the pandemic, it was around five or six percent," explains Lombard. "So, that's been a really big change, and I think what it's allowed is people to accept high-paying salaries in northern Virginia to be able to take those and live somewhere more affordable, whether it’s Winchester, maybe up towards Pennsylvania."
The last time demographic patterns changed this much, he says, was when jobs moved from the manufacturing sector to service-based jobs. So, it's a trend that's likely to continue unless remote work becomes less popular.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
