Lynchburg leads Central Va. in population growth

Lynchburg is leading Central Virginia in population growth since 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

The Hill City’s growth rate of 11.2 percent is slightly higher than Virginia’s statewide increase, according to population estimates as of July 1.

“That’s pretty profound, isn’t it?” said Bert Dodson, Lynchburg’s vice mayor.

People wanting to live closer to work, plus Liberty University’s growth, were two factors — along with several others — that may have contributed to the growth, according to Dodson and two leaders in the real estate business.

The estimate indicates a trend has been reversed since 2000, when the city’s official population count had fallen by almost 800 people during the previous decade.

Lynchburg is attractive to many people because housing is affordable compared to other cities, said Betty Kain, a real estate broker and president of the Lynchburg Association of Realtors.

“We have a good work force, with a lot colleges here,” and that helps attract employers such as Babcock & Wilcox Inc., and Frito-Lay, Kain said.

A former president of the Realtors’ group, Betty Burch, said several factors account for the growth, including the presence of Areva, Babcock & Wilcox, Liberty University and Centra Health.

“I attribute it to the good economics we have here,” rather than any single factor, said Burch, a sales agent at John Stewart Walker Inc. and 2008 president of the Realtors’ association.

The growth can be attributed partly to “the national trend of people adjusting themselves to the economy and thinking more about how far you have to travel to work,” Burch said.

The reversal in the city’s population decline after 2000 could have been driven partly by Liberty University’s growth and partly by a negative event — the phased closing of the Ericsson phone plant.

Other manufacturing companies came to fill the void, and many of the Ericsson employees stayed in Lynchburg and started new businesses, Burch and Dodson said.

“I think 2001 was a tipping point,” Dodson said. When the Ericsson closing took away 4 percent of the jobs in Region 2000, “a lot of people stuck around instead of going to Raleigh, N.C., and other places,” Dodson said.

With Liberty and Thomas Road Baptist Church taking over the former Ericsson property, “that synergized things,” and the city also “had the good fortune of the nuclear industry coming back,” along with the expansion at Centra, Dodson said.

The Census Bureau’s annual population estimate, based mostly on births, deaths and migration, puts Lynchburg’s population at 72,596. That would be an increase of about 7,300 residents since 2000.

Bedford County, which experienced a 32 percent explosion in its population between 1990 and 2000, still is growing faster than the state average, if the census estimates are on target.

Bedford County’s growth rate was 10.7 percent, compared to the statewide average of 9.8 percent.

The census figures ranked Lynchburg’s growth at No. 33 among the state’s 135 cities and counties. Bedford County ranked 38th.

Loudoun County was tops in the state, nearly doubling itself with a growth rate of 71 percent the past eight years.

The census counts include college students who live in dormitories, as well as those who live off campus.