Virginia counties and cities by median household income (2010).
Virginia is an
employment-at-will state;
[166]
its economy has diverse sources of income, including local and federal
government, military, farming and business. Virginia has 4.1 million
civilian workers, and one-third of the jobs are in the
service sector.
[167][168] The unemployment rate in Virginia is among the
lowest in the nation, at 4.8%, as of December 2014.
[169] The second fastest job growth town in the nation is
Leesburg, as of 2011.
[170] The Gross Domestic Product of Virginia was $452 billion in 2013.
[171] According to the
Bureau of Economic Analysis, Virginia had the most counties in the top 100
wealthiest in the United States based upon median income in 2007.
[172] Northern Virginia is the
highest-income region in Virginia, having six of the twenty
highest-income counties in the United States, including the three highest as of 2011.
[173] According to CNN Money Magazine the highest-income town in the nation is
Great Falls, as of 2011.
[174]
According to a 2013 study by Phoenix Marketing International, Virginia
had the seventh-largest number of millionaires per capita in the United
States, with a ratio of 6.64%.
[175]
Government
Virginia has the highest defense spending of any state per capita, providing the Commonwealth with around 900,000 jobs.
[177][178] Approximately 12% of all
U.S. federal procurement money is spent in Virginia, the second-highest amount after California.
[178][179] Many Virginians work for
federal agencies in
Northern Virginia, which 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. Many others work for
government contractors, including defense and security firms, which hold more than 15,000 federal contracts.
[180]
Virginia has one of the highest concentrations of veterans of any state,
[181] and is second to
California in total Department of Defense employees.
[179][182] The
Hampton Roads area has the largest concentration of military personnel and assets of any metropolitan area in the world,
[183] including the largest naval base in the world,
Naval Station Norfolk.
[118] In its state government, Virginia employs 106,143 public employees, who combined have a median income of $44,656 as of 2013.
[184]
Business
Virginia has the highest concentration of technology workers of any state,
[185] and the fourth-highest number of technology workers after
California,
Texas, and
New York.
[186] Computer chips became the state's highest-grossing export in 2006, surpassing its traditional top exports of coal and tobacco combined,
[16] reaching a total export value of $717 million in 2015.
[17] Northern Virginia,
once considered the state's dairy capital, now hosts software,
communication technology, defense contracting companies, particularly in
the
Dulles Technology Corridor.
The state has the highest average and peak Internet speeds in the United States, with the third-highest worldwide.
[187] Northern Virginia's
data centers can carry up to 70% of the nation's internet traffic,
[188] with
Loudoun County alone home to as much data center space as
northern California.
[189][190]
Virginia companies received the fourth-highest amount of venture capital funding in the first half of 2011 after California,
Massachusetts, and New York.
[191] In 2009,
Forbes magazine named Virginia the best state in the nation for business for the fourth year in a row,
[192] while
CNBC named it the
top state for business in 2007, 2009, and 2011.
[193]
Additionally, in 2014 a survey of 12,000 small business owners found
Virginia to be one of the most friendly states for small businesses.
[194] Virginia has 20
Fortune 500 companies, ranking the state eighth nationwide.
[195] Tysons Corner is one of the largest business districts in the nation.
Tourism in Virginia supported an estimated 210,000 jobs and generated $21.2 billion in 2012.
[196] Arlington County is the top tourist destination in the state by domestic spending, followed by
Fairfax County,
Loudoun County, and
Virginia Beach.
[197]
Agriculture
Agriculture occupies 32% of the land in Virginia. As of 2012, about 357,000 Virginian jobs were in agriculture, with over 47,000 farms, averaging 171 acres (0.27 sq mi; 0.69 km
2), in a total farmland area of 8.1 million acres (12,656 sq mi; 32,780 km
2).
Though agriculture has declined significantly since 1960 when there
were twice as many farms, it remains the largest single industry in
Virginia.
[199] Tomatoes surpassed soy as the most profitable crop in Virginia in 2006, with peanuts and hay as other agricultural products.
[200] Although it is no longer the primary crop, Virginia is still the fifth-largest producer of tobacco nationwide.
[201]
Virginia is the largest producer of seafood on the
East Coast, with
scallops,
oysters,
blue crabs, and
clams as the largest seafood harvests by value, and
France,
Canada, and
Hong Kong as the top export destinations.
[198][202] Eastern oyster harvests have increased from 23,000 bushels in 2001 to over 500,000 in 2013.
[198] Wineries and vineyards in the
Northern Neck and along the
Blue Ridge Mountains also have begun to generate income and attract tourists.
[203] Virginia has the fifth-highest number of wineries in the nation.
[204]
Taxes
Virginia collects personal
income tax in five income brackets, ranging from 3.0% to 5.75%. The state sales and
use tax rate is 4.3%, while the tax rate on food is 1.5%. There is an additional 1% local tax, for a total of a 5.3% combined
sales tax on most Virginia purchases and 2.5% on most food.
[205] Virginia's
property tax
is set and collected at the local government level and varies
throughout the Commonwealth. Real estate is also taxed at the local
level based on 100% 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.
[206]
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