Chesterfield County leads Virginia in population growth

Northern Virginians, particularly remote workers seeking more affordable housing, are helping fuel a population boom in Chesterfield County.

The county is gaining about 19 residents daily, reflecting a population swell from 364,548 in April 2020 to 394,825 in July 2024, the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service estimates. The gain of more than 30,000 residents was the largest increase in the state.
“Chesterfield, in some ways, is becoming a suburb of Northern Virginia,” says Hamilton Lombard, the center’s demographer.

People who don’t need to be in the office every day are attracted by the price difference between housing in Northern Virginia and Chesterfield and the amount of new construction in the county, he says.

“It’s also pulling a lot of people from Henrico [County] and Richmond, so there’s a sort of cascading effect as well. People come into Henrico, prices go up. People come down to Chesterfield,” Lombard says. “The No. 1 thing, I think, is just the construction. They’re building and it’s near enough to D.C.”

Chesterfield currently has more than 30,000 residential lots approved and has seen more than 14,000 constructed in the last five years, says Kathryn Abelt, Chesterfield Economic Development‘s GIS and research director.

The county’s appeal is its quality of life, says Garrett Hart, Chesterfield Economic Development’s director. “That means schools first, public safety, participatory sports, parks and recreation, and then it’s an easy locality to deal with and get around.”

Chesterfield’s growing population is also attracting major corporations such as Lego Group, which is building a 1.7 million-square-foot plant in the county’s Meadowville Technology Park.

“Companies that have jobs are chasing talent; talent isn’t chasing jobs,” says Hart. “That’s why one of the first questions Lego asked us was, ‘Where are we going to get our 1,700 employees?’

“We go through our demographic numbers and our growth and our existing workforce and show them how they are going to get that done,” he adds.

“So, it’s important to us that we’re growing and we’re attracting talent.”
The county is at an all-time high for jobs, with more than 7,700 announced over the last six years. Chesterfield’s labor force has also grown from

183,193 in December 2020 to 201,863 in December 2024, Abelt says.
“Workforce continues to be among the most important factors in a business choosing Chesterfield,” she explains. “We share this data often.”