Which Metro Areas Send the Most New Residents to Richmond?

by John Egan
November 03, 2016

The Richmond, VA, metro area loses thousands of residents every year to the hustle and bustle of our nation’s capital. But even more people make the move from the Washington, DC, metro area to the relative calm of RVA, the state capital of Virginia.

A new LawnStarter analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows the Richmond area nets more than 2,700 new residents each year from DC, positioning it as the No. 1 source of Richmond’s transplants. From 2009 to 2013, an average of 8,709 people per year relocated from DC to Richmond, while an average of 5,962 people per year headed from Richmond to DC.

Just from a proximity standpoint, the Richmond-DC exchange of residents makes sense. A nearly 2½-hour drive along Interstate 95 separates the two metros.

Affordable housing is one of the draws of the Richmond, VA, metro area.
Photo: Virginia Commonwealth University

Cheaper and Mellower

Beyond proximity, there are more concrete reasons for trading DC for Richmond.

Catherine Baab-Muguira, an advertising copywriter and freelance writer who lives in Richmond and previously lived in DC, says people are attracted to RVA from the nation’s capital by its slower pace of life and lower cost of living. According to a calculator on Bankrate.com, it takes an annual income of nearly $77,400 in DC to enjoy the same standard of living as an annual income of $50,000 enables in Richmond.

“Richmond has cheap real estate, good schools and great restaurants. Even The Washington Post raves about Richmond's food scene,” Baab-Muguira says.

“For people who've been paying huge amounts to live in dismal DC suburbs packed wall to wall with careerist strivers, Richmond is a kind of promised land,” she adds. “There's very little traffic, a convenient airport and some lovely parks.”

Richmond’s New Arrivals

Here are the top 12 metro areas for sending new residents to Richmond, based on our analysis of 2009-13 data from the Census Bureau. The data was released in 2015.