The Greater Richmond Region (also known as Richmond-Petersburg) is a region located in a central part of the state of Virginia in the United States. As of 2010, it had a population of 1,258,251, making it the 43rd largest MSA in the country. It straddles the fall line, where the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont come together on the James River at Richmond and the Appomattox River at Petersburg. The English established each as colonial ports in the 17th century.
From 2000 to 2010, the Greater Richmond metro area experienced continuous population growth, adding over 161,294 residents for an increase of over 14.70%.
Richmond, VA MSA is a U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in Virginia as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as of June 2003. Currently the area covered by the MSA coincides precisely with the Richmond-Petersburg region of Virginia.
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Since a state constitutional change in 1871, all cities in Virginia are independent cities and they are not legally located in any county. The OMB considers these independent cities to be county-equivalents for the purpose of defining MSAs in Virginia. Each MSA is listed by its counties, then cities, each in alphabetical order, and not by size.
The area is composed of four independent cities (listed in order of population):
The three smaller cities (Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights) are located near each other in an area south of Richmond and are known collectively as the "tri-cities".
These counties (cities) are parts of the Richmond, MSA dictated by the OMB.
The Richmond-Petersburg metropolitan area includes many unincorporated towns and communities.
Note: This is only a partial listing.
| Greater Richmond Population by year[1] |
|
| 1990 | 865,640 |
| 2000 | 1,100,121 |
| 2001 | 1,111,088 |
| 2002 | 1,124,822 |
| 2003 | 1,139,092 |
| 2004 | 1,154,589 |
| 2005 | 1,173,410 |
| 2006 | 1,194,008 |
| 2007 | 1,212,977 |
| 2008 | 1,225,626 |
| 2010 | 1,258,251 |
The Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) which includes 3 other cities (Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights), and adjacent counties is home to approximately 1.25 million Virginians[2]). The Richmond Region is growing at a fast rate, one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country, adding nearly 40,000 residents in the past decade or so. This has resulted in major suburban sprawl, particularly in Henrico and Chesterfield, both which have populations over 300,000. This also resulted in boosts in its economy, the building of malls, more national attention, and major sporting events and concerts coming to Richmond. It's arts and culture scene has also seen a major gain, with the building or renovations of many new arenas, including the Landmark Theater, Carpenter Center, CenterStage, and the creation of an art walk, the First Fridays Art Walk, occuring on the first Friday of every month on Broad Street in Downtown Richmond, drawing crowds of over 20,000 people. The population has seen its ups and downs, with the city of Richmond itself dropping a bit below 200,000, but coming back in 2008 to 204,000 people again.
The region is located approximately equidistant from Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Lynchburg. The area is home to the state's center of gravity of population—which, in 1980, was located thirty miles west of Richmond near the Powhatan-Goochland County border.
Several of the most heavily traveled highways in the state transverse the area, which includes the junctions of Interstate 64 (which runs east-west), and Interstate Highways 85 and 95 (which run north-south). The area is also served by a comprehensive network of Interstate bypasses and spurs, and several non-interstate expressways. Several of these local roads are funded by tolls, although tolls have long been removed from the area's first limited access highway, the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike, which opened in 1958, and now forms a portion of I-95 and I-85. I-295 opened in 1992, was the last segment of Virginia's interstate system and forms an eastern bypass of Richmond and Petersburg.
The Richmond-Petersburg region is also located along several major rail lines operated by CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.
The area has two passenger stations served by Amtrak.
The Department of Rail and Public Transportation of the State of Virginia has studies underway for extending high speed passenger rail service to the Virginia Peninsula and South Hampton Roads areas with a rail connection at Richmond to service along both the Northeast Corridor and the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor. [1].
Another project, known as Transdominion Express, would extend from Richmond west to Lynchburg and from Washington, DC (Alexandria) south via an existing Virginia Railway Express route to Manassas, extending on south to Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Roanoke and Bristol on the Tennessee border. [2]
An international deepwater terminal is located at the Port of Richmond [3] on the James River which is navigable for shipping to Hampton Roads, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean.
Richmond International Airport is located in Henrico County, five miles east of the city center. The airport serves primarily domestic destinations in the Midwest, South, and Northeast as well as Eastern Canada.
Politics are a major topic for the Greater Richmond Region, considering main city Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Virginia State Capitol is located in the historic Capitol Square. Also, the new U.S. Courthouse was opened in 2010, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is located in Richmond, as well, along with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Richmond is a major political city in the USA, and a majority of Central Virginians work in the political field. Richmond has had its share of voting, and was completely Republican until 2008, during Obama's campaign, in which for the first time in decades, Richmond chose the Democratic Party.
| Year | GOP | DEM | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 46.5% 291,304 | 52.8% 330,528 | 0.7% 4,369 |
| 2004 | 55.0% 287,810 | 44.4% 232,240 | 0.6% 3,239 |
| 2000 | 54.4% 239,734 | 43.1% 189,867 | 2.6% 11,269 |
| 1996 | 50.6% 200,687 | 42.4% 168,190 | 6.9% 27,387 |
| 1992 | 44.9% 184,241 | 40.0% 164,116 | 15.0% 61,538 |
| 1988 | 62.4% 224,861 | 36.7% 132,277 | 0.9% 3,406 |
| 1984 | 64.1% 231,956 | 35.4% 128,044 | 0.5% 1,792 |
| 1980 | 55.9% 178,936 | 39.5% 126,245 | 4.6% 14,797 |
| 1976 | 53.8% 155,979 | 44.1% 127,693 | 2.1% 6,044 |
| 1972 | 70.5% 176,154 | 27.8% 69,598 | 1.7% 4,185 |
| 1968 | 46.5% 109,988 | 30.8% 72,876 | 22.7% 53,648 |
| 1964 | 55.1% 103,295 | 44.9% 84,184 | 0.1% 144 |
| 1960 | 58.4% 75,523 | 40.9% 52,945 | 0.7% 905 |
The applicable Metropolitan Statistical Area for the Richmond-Petersburg region is the Richmond, VA MSA, which as of 2006 is identical to the region defined in this article. The Richmond MSA provides employment for a total of approximately 472,000 workers. In order of the number of workers, the major employment categories of the region are services; retail trade; manufacturing; state government; finance, insurance and real estate; local government; construction; wholesale trade; transportation and public utilities and federal government. Within the manufacturing category of some 63,700 employees, the largest category of workers is in the tobacco industry. Other important manufacturing categories are chemicals, printing and publishing, paper, and wood manufactures.
This economic diversity, which is typical of the entire Richmond-Petersburg region, helps to insulate it from hardship due to economic fluctuation in particular sectors of the economy. The region's central location also allows it to benefit from growth in other regions of Virginia and the state as a whole.
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