Every metro area wants to attract and retain young, college-educated workers, but that stands as a particular challenge to Hampton Roads . These early-career professionals power the economy and often emerge as next-generation leaders, so their exodus is a problem warranting concern and deserving action. Valuable new research provides greater detail about those individuals and families most likely to depart and their reasons for moving elsewhere.
That information should drive strategic decisions — by cities and the larger region — if Hampton Roads hopes to compete with other metro areas courting this coveted cohort. Earlier this year, demographers at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service released an analysis of U.S.
Census Bureau data showing that, in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, scores of people were leaving Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia while smaller metro areas and rural communities experienced modest growth. The population loss wasn’t uniform across the region; while Newport News and Virginia Beach recorded declines, Suffolk and Isle of Wight saw increases. But the overall effect reflected long-standing concerns about the vitality of a regional economy dependent on defense industries, tourism and hospitality, and the Port of Virginia.
Several iterations of the always insightful State of the Region reports, produced annually by the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, Old Dominion University, showed Hampton Roa.