Virginia
From Wikinvestor
Virginia is an American state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. The name Virginia is traced to Queen Elizabeth I, who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married. The state is also known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The state is geographically shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, home to much of the state's flora and fauna. The capital of the commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The state population is over seven million.
The roots of modern Virginia trace back to the founding of the Virginia Colony in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London as the first permanent New World English colony. Slavery played a significant role in Virginia's early economy and politics. Virginia became one of the Thirteen Colonies in the American Revolution and subsequently joined the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Although traditionally conservative and historically part of the South, modern Virginia is a politically competitive state for both major national parties.
Virginia has an economy with several sectors, including agricultural production, federal agencies, such as The Pentagon, in Northern Virginia, and military bases in Hampton Roads, home to the region's main seaport. The growth of the media and technology sectors have made computer chips the state's leading export, with the industry based on the strength of Virginia's public schools and universities. College sports are followed by many across the state. Areas where the state has lagged behind include obesity prevention and environmental protection.
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Geography
Virginia has an area of 42,774 square miles (110,784 km2) making it the thirty-fifth largest state by area. Virginia is bordered by Maryland and the District of Columbia to the north and east; the Atlantic Ocean to the east; by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south; by Kentucky to the west and by West Virginia to the north and west. Due to a peculiarity of Virginia's original charter, its boundary with Maryland does not extend past the low-water mark of the southern shore of the Potomac River, so Maryland and the District of Columbia contain the whole width of the river rather than splitting it between them and Virginia. The southern border is defined as the 36°30' parallel north, though surveyor error has led to historic deviations.
The Chesapeake Bay separates most of the contiguous portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Many of Virginia's rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, James, and York. These shape three peninsulas into the Chesapeake. Geographically and geologically, Virginia is divided into five regions from east to west: Tidewater, Piedmont, Blue Ridge Mountains, Ridge and Valley, and Cumberland Plateau.
The Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries which enter the Chesapeake Bay. The Piedmont are a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic. The region includes the Southwest Mountains. The Blue Ridge are a physiographic province of the chain of Appalachian Mountains. The mountains are the highest points in the state, including Mount Rogers at 5,729 feet (1,746 m). The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains, and includes the Great Appalachian Valley. The region is carbonate rock based, and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the south-west corner of Virginia, below the Allegheny Plateau. In this region rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin.
The Virginia seismic zone has not had a history of regular activity. Earthquakes are rarely above 4.5 on the Richter magnitude scale because Virginia is located centrally on the North American Plate. The largest earthquake, at 5.9 magnitude, was in 1897 in Blacksburg. Besides coal, resources such as slate, kyanite, and sand and gravel are mined, with an annual value over $2 billion.
Climate
The climate of Virginia varies. Most of the state east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, as well as the southern part of the Shenandoah Valley, has a humid subtropical climate. In the mountainous areas west of the Blue Ridge, the climate becomes subtropical highland (Koppen Cfb). Seasonally, Virginia experiences extremes, from average lows of 26 °F (−3.3 °C) in January to average highs of 86 °F (30 °C) in July. The moderating influence of the ocean from the east, powered by the Gulf Stream, also creates the potential for hurricanes near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, making the coastal area vulnerable. Although Hurricane Gaston in 2004 inundated Richmond, hurricanes rarely threaten communities far inland.
Thunderstorms are a regular occurrence, and the state has an average of thirty-five to forty-five days of thunderstorm activity annually, with an average annual precipitation of 42.7 inches (108.5 cm). Additionally, the western part of the state experiences more thunderstorms. The state also averages eighty-five tornadoes per year, though most are F2 and lower on the Fujita scale. Cold air masses arriving over the mountains, especially in winter, can lead to significant snowfalls in those regions, such as the Blizzard of 1996. The interaction of these elements with the state's topography creates distinct microclimates in the Shenandoah Valley, the mountainous southwest, and the coastal plains.
In recent years, the expansion of the southern suburbs of Washington into Northern Virginia has created an urban heat island due to the increased energy output of more densely used areas. In the American Lung Association's 2008 report, two counties received failing grades for air quality, with Fairfax County having the worst in the state due to automobile pollution. Haze in the mountains is caused in part by coal power plants. Coal supplies half of the state's electricity, with another third from two nuclear power plants.
Demographics
As of 2007, Virginia had an estimated population of 7,712,091 which is an increase of 69,213, or just under one percent, from the prior year and an increase of 633,067, or nine percent, since the year 2000. This includes an increase from net migration of 276,292 people into the commonwealth. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 151,748 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 124,544 people. The center of population is located in Goochland County. English was passed as the commonwealth's official language by statutes in 1981 and again in 1996, though the status is not mandated by the Constitution of Virginia. English is the only language spoken by 6,245,517 (86.7%) Virginians, though it is spoken very well by an additional 570,638 (7.9%) for a total of 94.6% of the Commonwealth which speaks English. Spanish has the most speakers of other languages, with 424,381 (5.9%). 226,911 (3.2%) speak Asian and Pacific Islander languages, including Vietnamese and Filipino.
Ethnicity
As of 2000, the five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African (19.6%), German (11.7%), unspecified American (11.4%), English (11.1%), and Irish (9.8%). Most African-American Virginians are descendants of enslaved Africans who worked on tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations. These men and women were brought from west central Africa, primarily from Angola and Igbo areas of the Niger Delta region. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the North reduced Virginia's black population; however, in the past forty years there has been a reverse migration of blacks returning to Virginia and the rest of the South.
The western mountains have many settlements founded by Scotch-Irish immigrants before the Revolution. There are also sizable numbers of people of German descent in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley. People of English heritage settled throughout the state during the colonial period, and others of British and Irish heritage have migrated there through the decades for work.
Because of more recent immigration in the late 20th century and early 21st century, there are rapidly growing populations of Hispanics, particularly Central Americans, and Asians. As of 2007, 6.5% of Virginians are Hispanic, 5.4% are Asian, and 0.9% are American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.[2] The Hispanic population of the state tripled from 1990 to 2006, with two-thirds of Hispanics living in Northern Virginia. Hispanics in Virginia have higher median household incomes and educational attainment than the general United States or Virginia population.
Northern Virginia has the largest Vietnamese population on the East Coast, with slightly more than 99,000 Vietnamese residents, whose major wave of immigration followed the Vietnam War.[90] Due to their ties to the U.S. Navy, Hampton Roads has a sizable Filipino population, numbering about 45,000.[91] Virginia also continues to be home to eight federally recognized Native American tribes, with six other tribes recognized by the state.
Economy
Virginia's economy is very well balanced with many diverse sources of income, made up of 4.1 million civilian workers. In 2006, Forbes Magazine named Virginia the best state in the nation for business. The Gross Domestic Product of Virginia was $383 billion in 2007. As of 2000, Virginia had the highest number of counties in the top one-hundred wealthiest jurisdictions in the United States based upon median income. Virginia has seventeen total Fortune 500 companies, ranking the state tenth nationwide.t-grossing export in 2006, surpassing its traditional top exports of coal and tobacco, combined. Northern Virginia, once considered the state's dairy capital, now hosts software, communication technology, and consulting companies. The Dulles Technology Corridor near Dulles International Airport has a high concentration of Internet, communications and software engineering firms. Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Northern Virginia have the highest and second highest median household income, respectively, of all counties in the United States as of 2006.
In Southern Virginia from Hampton Roads to Richmond and to Lee County, the economy is based on military installations, and cattle, tobacco and peanut farming. About twenty percent of Virginian jobs are in agriculture, with 47,000 farms, averaging 181 acres (0.28 sq mi; 0.73 km²). Tomatoes surpassed soy as the most profitable crop in Virginia in 2006, with peanuts and hay as other agricultural products. Oysters are an important part of the Chesapeake Bay economy, but declining populations due to disease, pollution, and overfishing have diminished catches. Wineries and vineyards in the Northern Neck and along the Blue Ridge Mountains also have begun to generate income and attract tourists. The Pentagon, headquarters of the Department of Defense, is the largest office building on earth.
Many of Northern Virginia's well-educated population work directly for Federal agencies. Many others work for government contractors, including defense and security contractors.] Well-known government agencies headquartered in Northern Virginia include the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense, as well as the National Science Foundation, the United States Geological Survey and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Hampton Roads area has the largest concentration of military bases and facilities of any metropolitan area in the world. The largest of the bases is Naval Station Norfolk. Virginia has more veterans than any other state, with over 800,000, and is second only to Alaska in per capita defense spending.
Virginia collects personal income tax in five income brackets, ranging from 3.0% to 5.75%. The sales and use tax rate is 5%. The tax rate on food is 2.5%. There is an additional 1% local tax, for a total of a 5% combined sales tax on most Virginia purchases and a combined tax rate of 2.5% on food. Virginia's property tax is set and collected at the local government level and varies throughout the commonwealth. Real estate is taxed at the local level based on one-hundred percent of fair market value. Tangible personal property also is taxed at the local level and is based on a percentage or percentages of original cost.
