Bureau of Economic Analysis Statistics

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in the Department of Commerce, three Virginia communities Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax (including Fairfax and Falls Church cities) - were in the Top 20 of the communities with the highest per capita incomes in 1997.

Oh, lots of counties that separated from Virginia in 1863 - Ritchie, Upshur, Monroe, West Virginia are ranked at the bottom, having the lowest per-capita income for 3110 Counties in the United States.

And did you know that, of the 2,629,000 households in Virginia, 92% have a telephone, while 46% have a computer and 28% were using the Internet in 1998?

• Personal Income Statistics
• Regional Economic Profile
• Average Wage per Job

In addition, statistics are provided for the 7 MSA's and one Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA)/Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA) region that include some portion of Virginia:

• Charlottesville
• Danville
• Johnson City--Kingsport--Bristol (Tennessee-Virginia)
• Lynchburg
• Norfolk--Virginia Beach--Newport News (North Carolina-Virginia)
• Richmond-Petersburg
• Roanoke
• Washington (DC-Maryland-Virginia-West Virginia) CMSA

• county/city
• statewide
• Charlottesville
• Danville
• Johnson City--Kingsport--Bristol (Tennessee-Virginia)
• Lynchburg
• Norfolk--Virginia Beach--Newport News (North Carolina-Virginia)
• Richmond-Petersburg
• Roanoke
• Washington (DC-Maryland-Virginia-West Virginia) PMSA (NOTE: not CMSA)

"Each economic area consists of one or more economic node - metropolitan areas or similar areas that serve as centers of economic activity - and the surrounding counties that are economically related to the nodes. The main factor used in determining the economic relationships among counties is commuting patterns, so each economic area includes, as far as possible, the place of work and the place of residence of its labor force... By definition, the labor force of an economic area should work and reside in that area, so commuting across boundaries should be limited." (from Redefinition of the BEA Economic Areas, in February 1995 SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS)

As described in an article, Manufacturing Earnings in BEA Component Economic Areas, 1996, you can evaluate differences between geographic regions by examining the economic statistics. Virginia's Piedmont Industrial Belt and it's high-tech Northern Virginia region are both high-earning CEA's, while the two agricultural counties on the Eastern Shore are in a low-earning CEA.

A "component economic area" is a smaller subset of an economic area. Variations in CEA's help to explain why some regions are able to attract industries and maintain high economic growth, while others are less-successful.

The author, G. Andrew Bernat, Jr., defines several key factors associated with the geographic variation in manufacturing earnings per job:

• worker characteristics (education, experience, health, and occupation, plus two characteristics unrelated to productivity but correlated with earnings: race and gender)
• regional amenities (a warm climate, proximity to beaches, mountains, museums, theaters, shopping districts, etc.)
• demand factors for workers (presence of industries paying particularly high wages in an area, unemployment rate, and productivity of workers based on their education and experience in related industries)

A table contrasting high-earning and low-earning CEA's shows clear differences between the regions in worker education, topographic elevation, population density, and the percentage of manufacturing jobs in clusters. The last item suggests that communities seeking to create new jobs should focus on industries already in the neighborhood, to encourage "knowledge spillover."

Northern Virginia has telecommunications companies, with more moving to the area each week. Richmond has jumpstarted a bio-tech industry, based on research capabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Prince William County has done the same by attracting the American Type Culture Collection with state-provided subsidies. Both regions are assuming an investment in creating a base of expertise now will result in long-term benefits through later growth.

However, the spill-over effect can't counter a decline in an entire industry. The concentrations of textile manufacturing plants in Danville area, or cigarette manufacturing plants in Richmond, are unlikely to spur long-term growth in those industries no matter how much state financing is provided to attract similar plants. Workers trained to be productive in those industries will need to be retrained... just as workers in the Olin chemical plant at Saltville after the facility closed in 1972.

Local efforts to attract businesses to a community often focus on attracting manufacturing facilities (as opposed to other employers) because:

1. manufacturing plants employ workers at high wages
2. manufacturing industries export products outside the region, creating an "economic base" of other companies that either supply the manufacturing plants or support the workers employed at the manufacturing plants
3. manufacturing facilities are inclined to spur other industries to greater growth

As described by the Bureau of Census, "An establishment is a business or industrial unit at a single location that produces or distributes goods or performs services. The Economic Census classifies establishments according to the new North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)."

Table 1. Statistics by Economic Sector
[Excludes data for auxiliaries. Data in this table are subject to employment-and/or sales-size minimums that vary by geographic level; for more information, see help.
* NAICS INDUSTRIES is defined as the taxable portion of the Services sectors, the Type of Operation Totals for the Wholesale sector, and all other sectors in the Economic Census]

Charlottesville, VA MSA
1997 Population: 146,442

Danville, VA MSA
1997 Population: 108,866

Johnson City--Kingsport--Bristol, TN--VA MSA
1997 Population: 459,981

Lynchburg, VA MSA
1997 Population: 207,245

Norfolk--Virginia Beach--Newport News, VA--NC MSA
1997 Population: 1,544,781

Richmond--Petersburg, VA MSA
1997 Population: 946,575

Roanoke, VA MSA
1997 Population: 228,281

Washington, DC--MD--VA--WV PMSA
(portion of Washington--Baltimore, DC--MD--VA--WV CMSA)
1997 Population: 4,609,414

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1997 Economic Census
D: Withheld to avoid disclosing data of individual companies; data are included in higher level totals
N: Not available or not comparable
S: Withheld because estimate did not meet publication standards
Z: Less than half the unit shown
a: 0 - 19 employees
b: 20 - 99 employees
c: 100 - 249 employees
e: 250 - 499 employees
f: 500 - 999 employees
g: 1,000 - 2,499 employees
h: 2,500 - 4,999 employees
i: 5,000 - 9,999 employees
j: 10,000 - 24,999 employees
k: 25,000 - 49,999 employees
l: 50,000 - 99,999 employees
m: 100,000 or more employees
p: 10 to 19 percent estimated
q: 20 to 29 percent estimated
r: Revised
s: Sampling error exceeds 40 percent

You can also look at Virginia's economy by sector, such as coal mining.

Links

• Bureau of Economic Analysis
• Regional Accounts Data - Gross State Product Data
• Export.gov
• Export Statistics Express