Virginia’s population growth has slowed statewide over the past several years, but that flat headline number hides a much more interesting story underneath. While many rural counties are losing residents, a handful of suburbs, almost all of them ringing Richmond, are growing faster than nearly anywhere else on the East Coast. Understanding why is useful whether you are house hunting, thinking about resale value, or just curious why traffic on certain roads has gotten noticeably worse over the last few years.
The Richmond Region Is Virginia’s Growth Engine
For several years running, the Richmond metro area has been the fastest growing region in the entire state, and by a wide margin. According to data from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, the region added tens of thousands of new residents since 2020, driven overwhelmingly by people moving in from other places rather than births. A significant share of that migration is coming directly out of Northern Virginia, as remote work and rising costs push people to look for the same job market and lifestyle at a much lower price.
The four fastest growing counties in Virginia so far this decade, New Kent, Goochland, Louisa, and Caroline, are all in or immediately adjacent to the Richmond metro area. That is not a coincidence. It is the clearest signal available of where Virginia’s growth is actually concentrated.
New Kent County
New Kent has consistently ranked as Virginia’s fastest growing county, with population increases well into the double digits over the past several years. Its appeal is a mix of relatively affordable land, larger lot sizes than you would find closer to Richmond’s urban core, and a location right along Interstate 64 that keeps commuting into the city manageable. New Kent has historically been a more rural county, so a lot of its growth has come from new residential development that did not exist a decade ago.
Goochland County
Goochland has grown alongside New Kent as one of the two fastest expanding counties in the state. It sits just west of Richmond and Henrico County, and has attracted a mix of higher end residential development and families looking for a quieter, more spread out alternative to the inner suburbs, while still keeping a reasonable commute into downtown Richmond or Short Pump.
Louisa County
Louisa County, further west along the I-64 corridor toward Charlottesville, has become an increasingly popular option for people who want more land and lower housing costs while still maintaining access to both the Richmond and Charlottesville job markets. Its growth has accelerated as commuting patterns loosen and remote or hybrid work makes a longer occasional commute more tolerable.
Chesterfield County
Chesterfield stands out on this list because of its sheer scale. While its percentage growth rate is lower than New Kent or Goochland, Chesterfield has added more total residents than any other Virginia county in recent years, tens of thousands of new residents since 2020 alone. Chesterfield offers a well established mix of established neighborhoods and newer subdivisions, strong schools, and a wide range of price points, which makes it one of the more versatile suburbs in the region rather than a niche option. Our guides to best neighborhoods for Chester, VA families and Glen Allen vs. Chesterfield vs. Mechanicsville go deeper into specific Chesterfield communities.
Hanover County
Hanover has posted solid, steady growth as well, drawing families with its highly regarded school system and a mix of established towns like Mechanicsville alongside newer development closer to the Richmond line. It tends to appeal to buyers who want a more traditional suburban feel with strong schools as the top priority.
What’s Actually Driving This
A few forces are converging at once to fuel this growth.
Migration out of Northern Virginia. Migration from Northern Virginia into the Richmond metro area has climbed sharply over the past decade, as the gap between NoVA and Richmond home prices has widened and remote work has loosened the requirement to live close to a DC office. For a full look at how the two regions compare, see our post on Northern Virginia vs. Richmond career opportunities.
Remote and hybrid work. A third of all workdays nationally are now done remotely at least in part, which has allowed growth to spread further from traditional employment centers than it ever did before. This is part of why counties like Louisa and New Kent, further from Richmond’s urban core than a typical commuter suburb, are seeing outsized growth.
Relative affordability. Even as prices climb in the most in demand Richmond suburbs, they remain far below Northern Virginia and are competitive with much of the rest of the country, which continues to draw both in state and out of state buyers.
New home construction. Counties like New Kent and Goochland had significant undeveloped land available, which allowed builders to add new subdivisions at a pace that older, more built out suburbs simply cannot match.
Growth Beyond Richmond: Winchester and Hampton Roads
While the Richmond region has drawn the most attention, it is not the only part of Virginia experiencing rapid growth. The Winchester metro area, in the northern Shenandoah Valley, has become Virginia’s fastest growing metro area by percentage, fueled largely by residents leaving Northern Virginia in search of lower housing costs while staying within a reasonable driving distance of the DC area.
In Hampton Roads, Suffolk has posted some of the strongest growth in the state, driven in part by industrial expansion connected to the Port of Virginia. Chesapeake has also grown steadily as a more affordable, newer construction alternative to Virginia Beach and Norfolk. These pockets of growth follow a similar pattern to what is happening around Richmond, newer suburban and exurban areas with available land absorbing much of the region’s population increase, while the older urban cores grow much more slowly or, in some cases, lose residents.
How This Growth Affects Infrastructure
Rapid population growth tends to outpace infrastructure investment in the short term, and Virginia’s fastest growing counties are no exception. Road capacity along key corridors like Interstate 64 near New Kent and Route 250 through Goochland has become a common topic of local government discussion as commute times lengthen. School systems in the fastest growing counties are similarly working to keep pace, with several building new elementary and middle schools specifically to accommodate new subdivisions.
None of this is unusual for a fast growing area, and Virginia’s local governments have generally been proactive about planning for it, but it is a realistic tradeoff worth understanding if you are choosing between an established suburb with mature infrastructure and a newer, faster growing county still catching up.
Who Is Actually Moving to These Suburbs
The demographic profile behind this growth is a useful lens for deciding whether one of these counties fits your situation. Families moving from Northern Virginia tend to gravitate toward Hanover and the more established parts of Chesterfield, drawn by strong schools and a suburban feel similar to what they left behind, just at a much lower price. Buyers prioritizing acreage and a slower pace, including some retirees and remote workers, are more often the ones landing in New Kent, Goochland, and Louisa, where lot sizes are larger and the atmosphere is noticeably more rural. Younger buyers and first time homeowners have increasingly been drawn to newer construction in Chesterfield and parts of Hanover, where builders have kept entry level price points more accessible than in the closer in Richmond suburbs.
What This Growth Means If You Are House Hunting
Fast growth cuts both ways for buyers. On one hand, it signals strong long term demand and generally supports home values over time. On the other hand, the most in demand pockets of counties like New Kent and Goochland have seen meaningful price appreciation in a short window, which means the deepest bargains from a few years ago are largely gone.
It is also worth factoring in what growth does to daily life, longer commute times as road infrastructure catches up to new development, and school capacity questions in counties adding residents quickly. None of that is a reason to avoid these areas, but it is worth researching at the specific neighborhood level rather than relying on countywide averages alone.
Comparing Growth Suburbs to Established Options
If you are weighing one of these fast growing counties against a more established Richmond suburb, our comparison of Midlothian vs. Henrico is a useful side by side for two of the region’s more built out options, while our Glen Allen neighborhood guide covers one of Henrico’s most popular pockets.
Moving to Any of These Communities
Cavalier Moving handles local and long distance moves throughout the Richmond region, including New Kent, Goochland, Louisa, Chesterfield, and Hanover Counties. If you have found your next neighborhood among Virginia’s fastest growing suburbs, reach out to our team for a quote and we will help you get there.