Virginia

The Chesapeake Bay separates the contiguous portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginia's Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the drowned river valleys of the Susquehanna River and the James River.[16] Many of Virginia's rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, which create three peninsulas in the bay.[17][18]

Deciduous and evergreen trees give the Blue Ridge Mountains their distinct color.[19]

The Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay. The Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era.[20] The region, known for its heavy clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville.[21] The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the commonwealth, the tallest being Mount Rogers at 5,729 feet (1,746 m).[22] 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.[23] The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, south of the Allegheny Plateau. In this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin.[24]

The Virginia Seismic Zone has not had a history of regular earthquake activity. Earthquakes are rarely above 4.5 in magnitude, because Virginia is located away from the edges of the North American Plate. The largest earthquake, at an estimated 5.9 magnitude, was in 1897 near Blacksburg.[25] A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Virginia on August 23, 2011, near Mineral. The earthquake was reportedly felt as far away as Toronto, Atlanta and Florida.[26] 35 million years ago, a bolide impacted what is now eastern Virginia. The resulting Chesapeake Bay impact crater may explain what earthquakes and subsidence the region does experience.[27]

Coal mining takes place in the three mountainous regions at 45 distinct coal beds near Mesozoic basins.[28] More than 64 million tons of other non-fuel resources, such as slate, kyanite, sand, or gravel, were also mined in Virginia in 2018.[29] The commonwealth's carbonate rock is filled with more than 4,000 caves, ten of which are open for tourism, including the popular Luray Caverns and Skyline Caverns.[30]

The climate of Virginia is humid subtropical and becomes increasingly warmer and more humid farther south and east.[31] Seasonal extremes vary from average lows of 26 °F (−3 °C) in January to average highs of 86 °F (30 °C) in July. The Atlantic Ocean has a strong effect on eastern and southeastern coastal areas of the commonwealth. Influenced by the Gulf Stream, coastal weather is subject to hurricanes, most pronouncedly near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.[32] In spite of its position adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, even the coastal areas have a significant continental influence with quite large temperature differences between summer and winter, particularly given the commonwealth climate's subtropical classification, which is typical of states in the Upper South.

Virginia has an annual average of 35–45 days of thunderstorm activity, particularly in the western part of the commonwealth,[33] and an average annual precipitation of 43.32 inches (110 cm).[34] Cold air masses arriving over the mountains in winter can lead to significant snowfalls, such as the Blizzard of 1996 and winter storms of 2009–2010. The interaction of these elements with the commonwealth's topography creates distinct microclimates in the Shenandoah Valley, the mountainous southwest, and the coastal plains.[35] Virginia averages seven tornadoes annually, most F2 or lower on the Fujita scale.[36]

In recent years, the expansion of the southern suburbs of Washington, D.C. into Northern Virginia has introduced an urban heat island primarily caused by increased absorption of solar radiation in more densely populated areas.[37] In the American Lung Association's 2018 report, Arlington and Fairfax counties received failing grades for high ozone pollution.[38] Haze in the mountains is caused in part by coal power plants.[39] Virginia currently plans for thirty percent of the state's electricity to be renewable by 2030 and for all of it to be carbon-free by 2050.[40]

Forests cover 65 percent of Virginia, primarily with deciduous, broadleaf trees in the western part of the commonwealth and evergreens and conifers in the central and eastern parts of Virginia.[41] Lower altitudes are more likely to have small but dense stands of moisture-loving hemlocks and mosses in abundance, with hickory and oak in the Blue Ridge.[31] However, since the early 1990s, Gypsy moth infestations have eroded the dominance of oak forests.[42] In the lowland tidewater and piedmont, yellow pines tend to dominate, with bald cypress wetland forests in the Great Dismal and Nottoway swamps. Other common trees and plants include red bay, wax myrtle, dwarf palmetto, tulip poplar, mountain laurel, milkweed, daisies, and many species of ferns. The largest areas of wilderness are along the Atlantic coast and in the western mountains, where the largest populations of trillium wildflowers in North America are found.[31][43]

White-tailed deer, also known as Virginia deer, graze at Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park

Virginia is home to more than one million white-tailed deer, whose population have rebounded from an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 during the Great Depression.[44] Native carnivorans include black bears, bobcats, coyotes, both gray and red foxes, raccoons, and skunks. Rodents include groundhogs, weasels, nutria, beavers, both gray squirrels and fox squirrels, chipmunks, and Allegheny woodrats, while bats include brown bats and the Virginia big-eared bat, the state mammal.[45] The Virginia opossum is also the only marsupial native to the United States and Canada,[46] and the native Appalachian cottontail was recognized as a separate species of rabbit in 1992.[47]

Birds of prey include ospreys, bald eagles, barred owls, red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures, brown pelicans, and 31 pairs of peregrine falcons, which are the focus of a reintroduction program in Shenandoah National Park.[48] Other birds include wild turkeys, quail, seagulls, Carolina chickadees, pileated woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, and cardinals, the state bird. Walleye, brook trout, Roanoke bass, and blue catfish are among the 210 known species of freshwater fish.[49] The Chesapeake Bay is host to many species, including blue crabs, clams, oysters, and rockfish.[50] Running brooks with rocky bottoms are often inhabited by plentiful amounts of crayfish,[31] and amphibians include the Cumberland Plateau salamander and Eastern hellbender.[45]

Virginia has 30 National Park Service units, such as Great Falls Park and the Appalachian Trail, and one national park, Shenandoah National Park.[51] Shenandoah was established in 1935 and encompasses the scenic Skyline Drive. Almost forty percent of the park's area (79,579 acres or 322.04 km²) has been designated as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System.[52] Additionally, there are 34 Virginia state parks and 17 state forests, run by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Department of Forestry.[41][53] The Chesapeake Bay, while not a national park, is protected by both state and federal legislation, and the jointly run Chesapeake Bay Program which conducts restoration on the bay and its watershed. The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge extends into North Carolina, as does the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which marks the beginning of the Outer Banks.[54]

The first people are estimated to have arrived in Virginia over 12,000 years ago.[61] By 5,000 years ago more permanent settlements emerged, and farming began by 900 AD. By 1500, the Algonquian peoples had founded towns such as Werowocomoco in the Tidewater region, which they referred to as Tsenacommacah. The other major language groups in the area were the Siouan to the west, and the Iroquoians, who included the Nottoway and Meherrin, to the north and south. After 1570, the Algonquians consolidated under Chief Powhatan in response to threats from these other groups on their trade network.[62] Powhatan controlled more than 30 smaller tribes and more than 150 settlements, who shared a common Virginia Algonquian language. In 1607, the native Tidewater population was between 13,000 and 14,000.[63]

Several European expeditions, including a group of Spanish Jesuits, explored the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th century.[64] In 1583, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted Walter Raleigh a charter to plant a colony north of Spanish Florida.[65] In 1584, Raleigh sent an expedition to the Atlantic coast of North America.[66] The name "Virginia" may have been suggested then by Raleigh or Elizabeth, perhaps noting her status as the "Virgin Queen", and may also be related to a native phrase, "Wingandacoa", or name, "Wingina".[67] Initially the name applied to the entire coastal region from South Carolina to Maine, plus the island of Bermuda.[68] Later, subsequent royal charters modified the Colony's boundaries. The London Company was incorporated as a joint stock company by the proprietary Charter of 1606, which granted land rights to this area. The company financed the first permanent English settlement in the "New World", Jamestown. Named for King James I, it was founded in May 1607 by Christopher Newport.[69] In 1619, colonists took greater control with an elected legislature called the House of Burgesses. With the bankruptcy of the London Company in 1624, the settlement was taken into royal authority as an English crown colony.[70]

Williamsburg was Virginia's capital from 1699 to 1780.

Life in the colony was perilous, and many died during the Starving Time in 1609 and the Anglo-Powhatan Wars, including the Indian massacre of 1622, which fostered the colonists' negative view of all tribes.[71] By 1624, only 3,400 of the 6,000 early settlers had survived.[72] However, European demand for tobacco fueled the arrival of more settlers and servants.[73] The headright system tried to solve the labor shortage by providing colonists with land for each indentured servant they transported to Virginia.[74] African workers were first imported to Jamestown in 1619 initially under the rules of indentured servitude. The shift to a system of African slavery in Virginia was propelled by the legal cases of John Punch, who was sentenced to lifetime slavery in 1640 for attempting to run away,[75] and of John Casor, who was claimed by Anthony Johnson as his servant for life in 1655.[76] Slavery first appears in Virginia statutes in 1661 and 1662, when a law made it hereditary based on the mother's status.[77]

Tensions and the geographic differences between the working and ruling classes led to Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, by which time current and former indentured servants made up as much as eighty percent of the population.[78] Rebels, largely from the colony's frontier, were also opposed to the conciliatory policy towards native tribes, and one result of the rebellion was the signing at Middle Plantation of the Treaty of 1677, which made the signatory tribes tributary states and was part of a pattern of appropriating tribal land by force and treaty. Middle Plantation saw the founding of The College of William & Mary in 1693 and was renamed Williamsburg as it became the colonial capital in 1699.[79] In 1747, a group of Virginian speculators formed the Ohio Company, with the backing of the British crown, to start English settlement and trade in the Ohio Country west of the Appalachian Mountains.[80] France, which claimed this area as part of their colony of New France, viewed this as a threat, and the ensuing French and Indian War became part of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). A militia from several British colonies, called the Virginia Regiment, was led by then-Lieutenant Colonel George Washington.[81]

1851 painting of Patrick Henry's speech before the House of Burgesses on the Virginia Resolves against the Stamp Act of 1765

The British Parliament's efforts to levy new taxes following the French and Indian War were deeply unpopular in the colonies. In the House of Burgesses, opposition to taxation without representation was led by Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, among others.[82] Virginians began to coordinate their actions with other colonies in 1773, and sent delegates to the Continental Congress the following year.[83] After the House of Burgesses was dissolved by the royal governor in 1774, Virginia's revolutionary leaders continued to govern via the Virginia Conventions. On May 15, 1776, the Convention declared Virginia's independence from the British Empire and adopted George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was then included in a new constitution.[84] Another Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, drew upon Mason's work in drafting the national Declaration of Independence.[85]

When the American Revolutionary War began, George Washington was selected to head the colonial army. During the war, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of Governor Thomas Jefferson, who feared that Williamsburg's coastal location would make it vulnerable to British attack.[86] In 1781, the combined action of Continental and French land and naval forces trapped the British army on the Virginia Peninsula, where troops under George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau defeated British General Cornwallis in the Siege of Yorktown. His surrender on October 19, 1781 led to peace negotiations in Paris and secured the independence of the colonies.[87]

Virginians were instrumental in writing the United States Constitution. James Madison drafted the Virginia Plan in 1787 and the Bill of Rights in 1789.[85] Virginia ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1788. The three-fifths compromise ensured that Virginia, with its large number of slaves, initially had the largest bloc in the House of Representatives. Together with the Virginia dynasty of presidents, this gave the Commonwealth national importance. In 1790, both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, though the Virginian area was retroceded in 1846.[88] Virginia is called the "Mother of States" because of its role in being carved into states such as Kentucky, which became the 15th state in 1792, and for the numbers of American pioneers born in Virginia.[89]

Richmond was made the capital of the Confederacy in 1861, and was partially burned by them prior its recapture by Union forces in 1865.

In addition to agriculture, slave labor was increasingly used in mining, shipbuilding and other industries.[90] The execution of Gabriel Prosser in 1800, Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831 and John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 marked the growing social discontent over slavery and its role in the plantation economy. By 1860, almost half a million people, roughly 31 percent of the total population of Virginia, were enslaved.[91][92] This division contributed to the start of the American Civil War.

Virginia voted to secede from the United States on April 17, 1861, after the Battle of Fort Sumter and Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers. On April 24, Virginia joined the Confederate States of America, which chose Richmond as its capital.[89] After the 1861 Wheeling Convention, 48 counties in the northwest separated to form a new state of West Virginia, which chose to remain loyal to the Union. Virginian general Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862, and led invasions into Union territory, ultimately becoming commander of all Confederate forces. During the war, more battles were fought in Virginia than anywhere else, including Bull Run, the Seven Days Battles, Chancellorsville, and the concluding Battle of Appomattox Court House.[93] After the capture of Richmond in April 1865, the state capital was briefly moved to Lynchburg,[94] while the Confederate leadership fled to Danville.[95] Virginia was formally restored to the United States in 1870, due to the work of the Committee of Nine.[96]

During the post-war Reconstruction era, Virginia adopted a constitution which provided for free public schools, and guaranteed political, civil, and voting rights.[97] The populist Readjuster Party ran an inclusive coalition until the conservative white Democratic Party gained power after 1883.[98] It passed segregationist Jim Crow laws and in 1902 rewrote the Constitution of Virginia to include a poll tax and other voter registration measures that effectively disenfranchised most African Americans and many poor European Americans.[99] Though their schools and public services were segregated and underfunded due to a lack of political representation, African Americans were able to unite in communities and take a greater role in Virginia society.[100]

Many Pre-Dreadnought and World War I-era warships were built in Newport News, including the USS Virginia.

New economic forces also changed the Commonwealth. Virginian James Albert Bonsack invented the tobacco cigarette rolling machine in 1880 leading to new industrial scale production centered around Richmond. In 1886, railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington founded Newport News Shipbuilding, which was responsible for building six major World War I-era battleships for the U.S. Navy from 1907 to 1923.[101] During the war, German submarines like U-151 attacked ships outside the port.[102] In 1926, Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, rector of Williamsburg's Bruton Parish Church, began restoration of colonial-era buildings in the historic district with financial backing of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.[103] Though their project, like others in the state, had to contend with the Great Depression and World War II, work continued as Colonial Williamsburg became a major tourist attraction.[104]

The Virginia Civil Rights Memorial was erected in 2008 to commemorate the protests which led to school desegregation.

Protests started by Barbara Rose Johns in 1951 in Farmville against segregated schools led to the lawsuit Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County. This case, filed by Richmond natives Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill, was decided in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education, which rejected the segregationist doctrine of "separate but equal". But, in 1958, under the policy of "massive resistance" led by the influential segregationist Senator Harry F. Byrd and his Byrd Organization, the Commonwealth prohibited desegregated local schools from receiving state funding.[105]

The civil rights movement gained many participants in the 1960s. It achieved the moral force and support to gain passage of national legislation with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1964 the United States Supreme Court ordered Prince Edward County and others to integrate schools.[106] In 1967, the Court also struck down the state's ban on interracial marriage with Loving v. Virginia. From 1969 to 1971, state legislators under Governor Mills Godwin rewrote the constitution, after goals such as the repeal of Jim Crow laws had been achieved. In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected as governor in the United States.[107]

The Cold War led to the expansion of national defense government programs housed in offices in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., and correlative population growth.[108] The Central Intelligence Agency in Langley was involved in various Cold War events, including as the target of Soviet espionage activities. Also among the federal developments was the Pentagon, built during World War II as the headquarters for the Department of Defense. It was one of the targets of the September 11 attacks; 189 people died at the site when a jet passenger plane was flown into the building.[109]

Virginia counties and cities by population in 2010

Virginia is divided into 95 counties and 38 independent cities, the latter acting in many ways as county-equivalents.[111] This general method of treating cities and counties on par with each other is unique to Virginia; only three other independent cities exist elsewhere in the United States, each in a different state.[112] Virginia limits the authority of cities and counties to countermand laws expressly allowed by the Virginia General Assembly under what is known as Dillon's Rule.[113] In addition to independent cities, there are also incorporated towns which operate under their own governments, but are part of a county. Finally there are hundreds of unincorporated communities within the counties. Virginia does not have any further political subdivisions, such as villages or townships.

Virginia has 11 Metropolitan Statistical Areas; Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Richmond-Petersburg are the three most populous.

2.9 million people — 35% of Virginians — live in Northern Virginia (or "NoVa"), which is located immediately across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. and is part of the Washington metropolitan area with 6.2 million people. Metro Washington is in turn part of the larger Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area with 9.8 million people, the fourth-largest urban agglomeration in the United States and the southern end of the Northeast megalopolis. Fairfax County is the most populous locality in the state, with more than a million residents, although that does not include its county seat Fairfax, which is one of the independent cities.[114] Fairfax County has a major urban business and shopping center in Tysons Corner, Virginia's largest office market.[115] Neighboring Prince William County is Virginia's second most populous county, with a population exceeding 450,000, and is home to Marine Corps Base Quantico, the FBI Academy and Manassas National Battlefield Park. Loudoun County, with the county seat at Leesburg, is the fastest-growing county in Virginia and has the highest median household income ($114,204) in the country as of 2010.[116] Arlington County, the smallest self-governing county in the United States by land area, is an urban community organized as a county.[117]

Richmond is the capital of Virginia, and its metropolitan area has a population over 1.2 million.[118] As of 2010, Virginia Beach is the most populous city in the Commonwealth, with Norfolk and Chesapeake second and third, respectively.[119] Norfolk forms the urban core of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, which has a population over 1.6 million people and is the site of the world's largest naval base, Naval Station Norfolk.[118][120] Suffolk, which includes a portion of the Great Dismal Swamp, is the largest city by area at 429.1 square miles (1,111 km²).[121]

The Roanoke area, with an estimated population of 314,128, is the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in western Virginia.[122]

The state's most populous ethnic group, Non-Hispanic whites, has declined as a proportion of population from 76 percent in 1990 to 62 percent in 2018, as other ethnicities have increased.[128][129] People of English heritage settled throughout the Commonwealth during the colonial period, and others of British and Irish heritage have since immigrated.[130] Those who identify on the census as having "American ethnicity" are predominantly of English descent, but have ancestors who have been in North America for so long they choose to identify simply as American.[131][132] Of the English immigrants to Virginia in the 17th century, three-fourths came as indentured servants.[133] The western mountains have many settlements that were founded by Scots-Irish immigrants before the American Revolution.[134][135] There are also sizable numbers of people of German descent in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley.[136] On the 2017 American Community Survey, 11.3 percent said they were of German ancestry.[137]

The largest minority group in Virginia are African Americans, who include about one-fifth of the population.[129] Virginia was a major destination of the Atlantic slave trade, and the first generations of enslaved men, women and children were brought primarily from Angola and the Bight of Biafra. The Igbo ethnic group of what is now southern Nigeria were the single largest African group among slaves in Virginia.[138] Many African Americans also have European and Native American ancestry, often with asymmetrical male and female ancestry contribution.[139] Though the black population was reduced by the Great Migration to northern industrial cities in the first half of the 20th century, since 1965 there has been a reverse migration of blacks returning south.[140] According to the Pew Research Center, the state has the highest number of black-white interracial marriages in the United States,[141] and 2.9 percent of Virginians describe themselves as biracial.[142]

More recent immigration in the late 20th century and early 21st century has resulted in new communities of Hispanics and Asians. As of 2018, 9.4 percent of Virginians are Hispanic or Latino (of any race), and 6.8 percent are Asian.[129] The state's Hispanic population rose by 92 percent from 2000 to 2010, with two-thirds of Hispanics in the state living in Northern Virginia.[142] Hispanic citizens in Virginia have higher median household incomes and educational attainment than the general state population.[143] There is a large Salvadoran population in the DC suburbs of Northern Virginia,[144] and a large Puerto Rican population in the Hampton Roads region of Southeast Virginia.[145] Northern Virginia also has a significant population of Vietnamese Americans, whose major wave of immigration followed the Vietnam War.[146] Korean Americans have migrated more recently, attracted by the quality school system.[147] The Filipino American community has about 45,000 in the Hampton Roads area, many of whom have ties to the U.S. Navy and armed forces.[148]

Additionally, 0.5 percent of Virginians are American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.1 percent are Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.[129] Virginia has extended state recognition to eight Native American tribes resident in the state; six of these gained federal recognition as tribes in 2018, and two were already recognized. Most Native American groups are located in the Tidewater region.[149]

As of 2010, 85.9% (6,299,127) of Virginia residents age five and older spoke English at home as a first language, while 14.1% (1,036,442) did not—6.4% (470,058) spoke Spanish, 0.8% (56,518) Korean, 0.6% (45,881) Vietnamese, 0.6% (42,418) Chinese (including Mandarin), and 0.6% (40,724) Tagalog.[150] 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.[151]

The Piedmont region is known for its dialect's strong influence on Southern American English. While a more homogenized American English is found in urban areas, various accents are also used, including the Tidewater accent, the Old Virginia accent, and the anachronistic Elizabethan of Tangier Island.[152][153]

Virginia is predominantly Christian and Protestant; Baptist denominations combined to form largest group with about 26 percent of the population as of 2014,[154] and around 763,655 total members as of 2010.[155] Baptist denominational groups in Virginia include the Baptist General Association of Virginia, with about 1,400 member churches, which supports both the Southern Baptist Convention and the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; and the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia with more than 500 affiliated churches, which supports the Southern Baptist Convention.[156][157] Roman Catholics are the second-largest religious group with 673,853 members.[155] The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington includes most of Northern Virginia's Catholic churches, while the Diocese of Richmond covers the rest.

Christ Church in Alexandria was frequented by George Washington.

The Virginia Conference is the regional body of the United Methodist Church in most of the Commonwealth, while the Holston Conference represents much of extreme Southwest Virginia. The Virginia Synod is responsible for the congregations of the Lutheran Church. Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Congregationalist, and Episcopalian adherents each comprised less than two percent of the population as of 2010.[155] The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, Southern Virginia, and Southwestern Virginia support the various Episcopal churches.

In November 2006, 15 conservative Episcopal churches voted to split from the Diocese of Virginia over the ordination of openly gay bishops and clergy in other dioceses of the Episcopal Church; these churches continue to claim affiliation with the larger Anglican Communion through other bodies outside the United States. Though Virginia law allows parishioners to determine their church's affiliation, the diocese claimed the secessionist churches' buildings and properties. The resulting property law case, ultimately decided in favor of the mainline diocese, was a test for Episcopal churches nationwide.[158]

Among other religions, adherents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints constitute one percent of the population, with two hundred congregations in Virginia as of 2017.[159] Fairfax Station is the site of the Ekoji Buddhist Temple, of the Jodo Shinshu school, and the Hindu Durga Temple. While the state's Jewish population is small, organized Jewish sites date to 1789 with Congregation Beth Ahabah.[160] Muslims are a growing religious group throughout the Commonwealth through immigration.[161] Megachurches in the Commonwealth include Thomas Road Baptist Church, Immanuel Bible Church, and McLean Bible Church.[162] Several Christian universities are also based in the state, including Regent University, Liberty University, and Lynchburg College.

The Department of Defense is headquartered in Arlington at the Pentagon, the world's largest office building.[172]

Virginia has the highest defense spending of any state per capita, providing the Commonwealth with around 900,000 jobs.[173][174] Approximately twelve percent of all U.S. federal procurement money is spent in Virginia, the second-highest amount after California.[174][175] 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.[176]

Virginia has one of the highest concentrations of veterans of any state,[177] and is second to California in total Department of Defense employees.[175][178] The Hampton Roads area has the largest concentration of military personnel and assets of any metropolitan area in the world,[179] including the largest naval base in the world, Naval Station Norfolk.[120] In its state government, Virginia employs 106,143 public employees, who combined have a median income of $44,656 as of 2013.[180]

Ocean tourism is an important sector of Virginia Beach's economy.

Virginia was home to 653,193 separate firms in the 2012 U.S. Census Survey of Business Owners, with 54% of those majority male-owned and 36.2% majority female-owned. Approximately 28.3% of firms were also majority minority-owned, and 11.7% were veteran-owned.[181] Twenty-one Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Virginia as of 2019, with the largest companies by revenue being Freddie Mac, General Dynamics, and Capital One.[182] The largest by their number of employees are Dollar Tree in Chesapeake and Hilton Worldwide Holdings in McLean.[183]

Virginia's business environment has been ranked highly by various publications. In 2019, CNBC named Virginia their Top State for Business, with its deductions being mainly for the high cost of living,[184] while Forbes magazine ranked it fourth, though number one in quality of life.[185] Additionally, in 2014 a survey of 12,000 small business owners found Virginia to be one of the most friendly states for small businesses.[186] Oxfam America however ranked Virginia last in their July 2018 ranking of best states to work in, largely due to a low minimum wage of $7.25, and the state's organized labor laws. Though the topic was debated during in the 2019–20 General Assembly session, Virginia has been a "right to work" state since 1947,[187] and an employment-at-will state since 1906.[188]

Virginia has the highest concentration of technology workers of any state,[189] and the fourth-highest number of technology workers after California, Texas, and New York.[190] Computer chips became the state's highest-grossing export in 2006,[191] with a total export value of $694 million in 2019.[166] Northern Virginia, once considered the state's dairy capital, now hosts software, communication technology, defense contracting companies, particularly in the Dulles Technology Corridor and Tysons Corner areas. The state has the highest average and peak Internet speeds in the United States, with the third-highest worldwide.[192] Northern Virginia's data centers can carry up to seventy percent of the nation's Internet traffic,[193] and in 2015 the region was the largest and fastest growing data center market in the nation.[194][195]

Tourism in Virginia supported an estimated 234,000 jobs in 2018, making tourism the state's fifth largest industry. It generated $26 billion, an increase 4.4 percent from 2017.[196] The state was eighth nationwide in domestic travel spending in 2018, with Arlington County the top tourist destination in the state by domestic spending, followed by Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Virginia Beach.[197] Virginia also saw 1.1 million international tourists in 2018, a five percent increase from 2017.[198]

Rockingham County accounts for twenty percent of Virginia's agricultural sales as of 2017.[199]

As of 2017, agriculture occupied 28 percent of the land in Virginia with 7.8 million acres (12,188 sq mi; 31,565 km²) of farmland. Nearly 54,000 Virginians work on the state's 43,225 farms, which average 181 acres (0.28 sq mi; 0.73 km²). Though agriculture has declined significantly since 1960 when there were twice as many farms, it remains the largest single industry in Virginia, providing for over 334,000 jobs.[200] Soybeans were the most profitable crop in Virginia in 2017, ahead of corn and cut flowers as other leading agricultural products,[201] however the ongoing China–United States trade war led many Virginia farmers to plant cotton instead of soybeans in 2019.[202] Though it is no longer the primary crop, Virginia is still the third-largest producer of tobacco in the United States.[200]

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.[203] Eastern oyster harvests had increased from 23,000 bushels in 2001 to over 500,000 in 2013,[204] but fell to 248,347 in 2019 because of low salinity in coastal waters due to heavy spring rains.[205] Those same rains however made 2019 a record wine harvest for vineyards in the Northern Neck and along the Blue Ridge Mountains, which also attract 2.3 million tourists annually.[206][207] Virginia has the seventh-highest number of wineries in the nation, with 307 as of January 2020.[208] Cabernet franc and Chardonnay are the most grown varieties.[209]

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. The sales tax rate is .7% higher in Northern Virginia and Newport News, where it is 6.0%.[210] 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 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.[211]

The Meadow Pavilion is one of the theaters at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.

Rich in cultural heritage, Virginia however ranks near the bottom of U.S. states in terms of public spending on the arts, at nearly half of the national average.[222] The state government does fund some institutions, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Science Museum of Virginia. Other museums include the popular Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum and the Chrysler Museum of Art.[223] Besides these sites, many open-air museums are located in the Commonwealth, such as Colonial Williamsburg, the Frontier Culture Museum, and various historic battlefields.[224] The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities works to improve the Commonwealth's civic, cultural, and intellectual life.[225]

Theaters and venues in the Commonwealth are found both in the cities and in suburbs. The Harrison Opera House, in Norfolk, is home of the Virginia Opera. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra operates in and around Hampton Roads.[226] Resident and touring theater troupes operate from the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton.[227] The Barter Theatre, designated the State Theatre of Virginia, in Abingdon won the first Regional Theatre Tony Award in 1948, while the Signature Theatre in Arlington won it in 2009. There is also a Children's Theater of Virginia, Theatre IV, which is the second largest touring troupe nationwide.[228]

Virginia has launched many award-winning traditional musical artists and internationally successful popular music acts, as well as Hollywood actors.[1] Virginia is known for its tradition in the music genres of old-time string and bluegrass, with groups such as the Carter Family and Stanley Brothers, as well as gospel, blues, and shout bands.[229] Contemporary Virginia is also known for folk rock artists like Dave Matthews and Jason Mraz, hip hop stars like Pharrell Williams, Missy Elliott and Pusha T, as well as thrash metal groups like GWAR and Lamb of God.[230] Several members of country music band Old Dominion grew up in the Roanoke area, and took their band name from Virginia's state nickname.[231] Notable performance venues include The Birchmere, the Landmark Theater, and Jiffy Lube Live.[232] Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts is located in Vienna and is the only national park intended for use as a performing arts center.[233]

The annual Chincoteague Pony Swim features more than two hundred wild ponies swimming across the Assateague Channel into Chincoteague.

Many counties and localities host county fairs and festivals. The Virginia State Fair is held at the Meadow Event Park every September. Also in September is the Neptune Festival in Virginia Beach, which celebrates the city, the waterfront, and regional artists. Norfolk's Harborfest, in June, features boat racing and air shows.[234] Fairfax County also sponsors Celebrate Fairfax! with popular and traditional music performances.[235] The Virginia Lake Festival is held during the third weekend in July in Clarksville.[236] Wolf Trap hosts the Wolf Trap Opera Company, which produces an opera festival every summer.[233] Each September, Bay Days celebrates the Chesapeake Bay as well as Hampton's 400-year history since 1610, and Isle of Wight County holds a County Fair on the second week of September as well. Both feature live music performances, and other unique events.

On the Eastern Shore island of Chincoteague the annual Pony Swim & Auction of feral Chincoteague ponies at the end of July is a unique local tradition expanded into a week-long carnival. The Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival is a six-day festival held annually in Winchester which includes parades and bluegrass concerts. The Old Time Fiddlers' Convention in Galax, begun in 1935, is one of the oldest and largest such events worldwide. Two important film festivals, the Virginia Film Festival and the VCU French Film Festival, are held annually in Charlottesville and Richmond, respectively.[237]

State elections in Virginia occur in odd-numbered years, with executive department elections occurring in years following U.S. presidential elections and Senate elections occurring in the years prior to presidential elections, as both have four-year terms. House of Delegates elections take place concurrent with each of those elections as members have two-year terms. National politics often play a role in state election outcomes, and Virginia has elected governors of the party opposite the U.S. president in ten of the last eleven contests, with only Terry McAuliffe beating the trend.[310][311]

McAuliffe, a Democrat, was elected Governor in the 2013 elections by two percentage points during Barack Obama's second presidential term.[312] Republicans, however, held a super-majority (68–32) of seats in the House of Delegates, which they had first gained in the 2011 state elections.[313] Republicans also held a one-vote majority the state senate, which they then maintained in the 2015 election.[314] Eleven house district lines used in these elections, drawn following the 2010 U.S. Census, were later judged unconstitutional for discriminating against African Americans.[315]

2017 Gubernatorial election winner by county
Northam:      40-49%      50-59%      60-69%      70-79%      80+%
Gillespie:      40-49%      50-59%      60-69%      70-79%      80+%

The 2017 statewide elections resulted in Democrats holding the three highest offices, with outgoing lieutenant governor Ralph Northam winning the governorship, Justin Fairfax elected lieutenant governor, and Mark Herring continuing as attorney general. In concurrent House of Delegates elections, Democrats flipped fifteen of the Republicans' previous sixteen-seat majority.[316] Control of the House came down to the tied election in the 94th district, which was won by Republicans through drawing of lots, giving the party a slim 51–49 majority in the 2018–19 legislative sessions.[317] Despite a political crisis that February, Democrats took full control of the General Assembly in the November 2019 elections,[318] the first after several districts were redrawn because of discrimination.[319]

In federal elections since 2006, both parties have seen successes. Republican Senator George Allen lost close races in 2006, to Democratic newcomer Jim Webb, and again in 2012, to Webb's replacement, former Governor Tim Kaine.[320] In 2008, Democrats won both United States Senate seats; former Governor Mark Warner was elected to replace retiring Republican John Warner.[321] In the 2010 mid-term elections, the first under President Obama, Republicans flipped three United States House of Representatives seats from the Democrats, while in the 2018 mid-terms, the first under President Trump, Democrats flipped three seats from Republicans. Of the state's eleven seats in the House of Representatives, Democrats currently hold seven and Republicans hold four.

Though Virginia was considered a "swing state" in recent presidential elections,[7] Democrat Barack Obama carried Virginia's 13 electoral votes in 2008 and 2012,[305] while Democrat Hillary Clinton carried the state in 2016. Virginia had previously voted for Republican presidential candidates in 13 out of 14 presidential elections from 1952 to 2004, including 10 in a row from 1968 to 2004.[7] Virginia currently holds its presidential primary election on Super Tuesday, the same day as thirteen other states, with the most recent held on March 3, 2020.[322]