Census Says Fairfax County, Fort Hunt Is Bigger, More Diverse

Fairfax County settled into middle age during the past 10 years, becoming a stable but increasingly diverse suburb as its younger neighboring counties burgeoned, according to numbers released two weeks ago from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Fairfax, Virginia’s largest and wealthiest county grew by just over 110,000 people from 2000-2010, to surpass 1 million people. But that represented just an 11 per cent growth rate—below the state growth rate for the same period of 13 percent. The county grew by 14 percent during the 1990s.

Fort Hunt from grew from 12, 923 people in 2000 to 16,045 people in 2010, representing a 24 percent increase in the population.

“The numbers don’t show all that surprise for Fairfax,” said Steve Farnsworth, an assistant professor of communications at George Mason University, who watches Fairfax County population and politics. “It is getting more diverse in terms of the ethnic population. There has been relatively slow growth in recent years because there is so much rapid growth outside of Fairfax in Loudoun, Prince William and Fauquier," he said.

Loudoun County had nearly 170,000 people in 2000 then ballooned to nearly 315,000 now as farmland became the Route 28 corridor--- Silicon Valley East. Prince William grew to nearly a 500,000 people, a 43 percent increase. Fauquier County grew by 18 percent but still has a population of only 65,000.

"You have seen the growth," Fairfax County Police Chief Col. Daniel Rohrer told a group of Patch editors last week. " This county has changed. Outside the Beltway and in western Fairfax. . . The explosive growth on the west side of the county," he said.

Fairfax grew largely because of Latino and Asian immigrants. The white non Hispanic population of the county dropped from 58 percent to 55 percent. The percentage of the Fort Hunt population listing their race as White but not Hispanic is close to 92 percent, representing only a one percent decline over the last ten years. 

Thirty years ago, Fairfax County residents were mostly Black and White and the county was still adjusting to desegregation in schools, restaurants, and housing. Now Asians are the county's largest minority group at nearly 20 percent of the population, followed by Latinos at 15 percent. Blacks are less than 10 percent of folks in the county.

"Our officers deal with 120 languages on the street," Rohrer said.  "An officer now can be faced with Urdu, Chinese and 118 other languages trying to help someone," he said.

The Fairfax County school system already has a majority of minority students. The Washington Post has reported, that Montgomery County, Md is now a majority-minority county.

“The education of the students is greatly enhanced the diversity of the population," Farnsworth said.  "You are offered a wide range of insights because of the people you meet." in your neighborhood, at your coffee shop, in the office, Farnsworth said.

What does all this mean for the future? First the county will probably become a majority-minority county in about 10 years, Farnsworth predicted. Also, Fairfax is graying. It has a growing senior population and those residents may want more services.

“As the portion of seniors increase that will increase pressure for more services that are of importance to older residents. There will be more demands for senior enrichment programs, mass transit, senior programs,” said Farnsworth.  

Eastern Fairfax inside the Beltway has seen an increase in older communities and as time goes on more and more of Fairfax will resemble the demographics of these older suburbs. That will create a lot of pressure on government to fund those services, Farnsworth said. What are the implications of the graying of Fairfax?

 “If you don’t respond to senior demands you will not be reelected," Farnsworth warned politicians. "Those senior demands will increase as the  (senior) population increases,” he said.