Us Against Them

By Sonia Harmon    Published Saturday, November 01, 2008


Northern Virginia* DC and Maryland suburbs^ Rest of Virginia
Population 2.3 million 3.1 million 5.5 million
Land area 2,200 square miles 1,700 square miles 37,300 square miles
Jurisdictions 11 5 123
Jurisdictions with average household income above $90,000 9 3 1
“Upper Crust” households+ 60,000 63,000 22,000
Per-capita income $55,60051 percent more than national average $52,10042 percent more than national average $33,3008 percent less than national average
Population below poverty level 113,000 242,000 616,000
State lottery sales $232 million $924 million $1.1 billion
Starbucks 106 139 96
Walmarts 12 10 77
Borders 16 17 5
Cracker Barrel restaurants 2 0 25
Fortune 500 companies 8 7 11
Megachurches 11 31 20
Percentage of population above age 24 with college degree 45 36 20
Percentage of residents born outside United States 20 16 3
Percentage of whites 74 54 73
Percentage of Hispanics 14 10 4
Percentage of African-Americans 12 37 23
Percentage of Asians 11 7 2

*Includes Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, and Stafford counties as well as the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park.

^Includes DC and Montgomery, Prince George’s, Howard, and Anne Arundel counties.

+Defined by Nielsen Claritas marketers

Key sources: Hartford Institute for Religion Research; Nielsen Claritas; US Census; Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. Figures are the latest available.

Comments


There’s a solution to the college issue. Other states--Ohio and Michigan for example--have agreements where each state treats the other’s residents as in-state for tuition purposes.

Maryland has UMCP just across the river from you guys, which is probably better than U-VA in most fields. But, other than maybe UMBC, we really don’t have any other reasonably good state schools. Perhaps Maryland and Northern Virginia could make such an agreement; it seems like it would be mutually beneficial.

--Daniel

Posted by: Daniel, Jan 04, 2009 09:42:43 AM

here’s my big problem with the new state idea:

The best collegs in Virginia (Virginia Tech, UVA, JMU, CNU, Longwood, etc) would become out of state schools for everybody in Northern Virginia. GMU and Nova are decent, but can’t take all of the students from the area. Out of state colleges are massively expensive when compared with in sate schools. Don’t screw college students like me and future college students like my sister; let’s stay united Virginia.

Stephen

Posted by: Stephen Dolenc, Nov 25, 2008 07:44:24 PM

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