Fairfax County is a
county in
Northern Virginia, in the
United States. , the estimated population of the county is 1,015,302, making it by far the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the most populous jurisdiction in the
Washington Metropolitan Area. Fairfax was the first county to reach a six-
figure median household income, and has the second-
highest median household income of any jurisdiction in the United States after neighboring
Loudoun County.
As of 2007, 14% of Virginia's population was located in Fairfax County, making it the most populous county in Virginia.
History
Fairfax County was formed in 1742 from the northern part of
Prince William County. It was named for
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781), proprietor of the
Northern Neck.
The oldest settlements in Fairfax County were located along the
Potomac River.
George Washington settled in Fairfax County and built his home,
Mount Vernon, facing the river.
Gunston Hall, the home of
George Mason is located nearby. Modern
Fort Belvoir is partly located on the estate of Belvoir Manor, built along the Potomac by William Fairfax in 1741.
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, the only member of the British nobility ever to reside in the colonies, lived at Belvoir before he moved to the
Shenandoah Valley. The Belvoir mansion and several of its outbuildings were destroyed by fire immediately after the
Revolutionary War in 1783, and George Washington noted the plantation complex gradually deteriorated into ruins.
In 1757, the northwestern two-thirds of Fairfax County became
Loudoun County. In 1789, part of Fairfax County was ceded to the federal government to form
Alexandria County of the
District of Columbia. Alexandria County was returned to Virginia in 1846, reduced in size by the secession of the
independent city of
Alexandria in 1870, and renamed
Arlington County in 1920. The Fairfax County town of
Falls Church became an independent city in 1948. The Fairfax County town of
Fairfax became an independent city in 1961.
Located near Washington, D.C., Fairfax County was an important region in the
Civil War. The
Battle of Chantilly or Ox Hill, during the same campaign as the
second Battle of Bull Run, was fought within the county; Bull Run straddles the border between Fairfax and Prince William County. For most of the Civil War,
Union troops occupied the county, though the population remained sympathetic to the
Confederacy.
The growth of the federal government in the years during and after World War II spurred rapid growth in the county. As a result, the once rural county began to become increasingly suburban. Other large businesses continued to settle in Fairfax County and the opening of
Tysons Corner Center spurred the rise of
Tysons Corner itself. The technology boom and a steady government-driven economy also created rapid growth and an increasingly growing and diverse population. The economy has also made Fairfax County one of the wealthiest counties in the nation.
Geography
Map of Fairfax County and neighboring jurisdictions
Fairfax County is bounded on the north and southeast by the
Potomac River. Across the river to the northeast is
Washington, D.C., across the river to the north is
Montgomery County, Maryland, and across the river to the southeast are
Prince George's County, Maryland and
Charles County, Maryland. The county is partially bounded on the north and east by
Arlington County and the independent cities of
Alexandria and
Falls Church. It is bounded on the west by
Loudoun County, and on the south by
Prince William County.
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 407 square miles (1,053 km²), of which, 395 square miles (1,023 km²) of it is land and 12 square miles (30 km²) of it (2.85%) is water.
Adjacent jurisdictions
National protected areas
Geology
Eleven square miles of the county are known to be underlain with natural
asbestos. Much of the asbestos is known to emanate from fibrous
tremolite or
actinolite. Approximately 20 years ago, when the threat was discovered, the county established laws to monitor air quality at construction sites, control soil taken from affected areas, and require freshly developed sites to lay of clean, stable material over the ground.
For instance, during the construction of
Centreville High School a large amount of asbestos-laden soil was removed and then trucked to Vienna for the construction of the I-66/Nutley Street interchange. Fill dirt then had to be trucked in to make the site level.
Marine clays can be found in widespread areas of the county east of Interstate 95, mostly in the Lee and Mount Vernon districts. These clays contribute to soil instability, leading to significant construction challenges for builders.
Government and politics
The county is governed by a
Board of Supervisors, composed of nine members elected from single-member districts and a chairman elected at-large. The districts are named Braddock, Dranesville, Hunter Mill, Lee, Mason, Mount Vernon, Providence, Springfield, and Sully.
Fairfax County's Government Center is west of the City of Fairfax in an
unincorporated area. Fairfax County contains an
exclave unincorporated area located in the central business district of the City of Fairfax, in which many county facilities (including the courthouses and jail) are located.
["." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on April 4, 2009.]["." Fairfax County. Retrieved on April 4, 2009.]Fairfax County was once considered a strong
Republican bastion in the suburbs of
Washington, D.C. However,
Democrats have in the past decade made significant inroads, gaining control of the Board of Supervisors and the School Board (officially nonpartisan) as well as the offices of
Sheriff and
Commonwealth Attorney. Democrats also control the majority of Fairfax seats in the Virginia
House of Delegates and
Senate.
Following the
election of November 2008, Republicans hold just one of the three congressional seats that include parts of Fairfax County. Communities closer to Washington, D.C. generally favor Democrats by a larger margin than do the outlying communities. In elections in 2000, 2001, and 2005, Fairfax County supported Democrats for U.S. Senate and governor. In 2004,
John Kerry won the county, becoming the first Democrat to do so since
Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1964 landslide (the last time Democrats carried the state until 2008). Kerry defeated
George W. Bush in the county 53% to 46%.
Democratic Governor
Tim Kaine carried Fairfax County with over 60% of the vote in 2005, leading him to win 51.7% of votes statewide. On November 7, 2006, U.S. Senator
Jim Webb (D) carried the county with about 58.9% of the votes.
In the state and local elections of November 2007, Fairfax Democrats picked up one seat in the
House of Delegates, two seats in the
Senate, and one seat on the Board of Supervisors, making their majority there 8-2.
On November 4, 2008, Fairfax County continued its shift towards the Democrats, with
Barack Obama and
Mark Warner each garnering over 60% of the vote for president and U.S. Senate, respectively. Also, the Fairfax-anchored 11th District United States House of Representatives seat held by
Thomas M. Davis for 14 years was won by
Gerry Connolly, the Democratic Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
Braddock supervisor
Sharon Bulova won a special election on February 3, 2009 to succeed
Gerry Connolly as chairman of the Board of Supervisors, continuing a Democratic hold on the office of chairman that dates back to 1995. In November, 2009, Governor-elect Bob McDonnell won Fairfax County with 51% of the vote.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 969,749 people, 350,714 households, and 250,409 families residing in the county. The
population density was 2,455 people per square mile (948/km²). There were 359,411 housing units at an average density of 910 per square mile (351/km²). The racial makeup of the county was:
- 3.65% from two or more races.
11.03% of the population were
Hispanics or Latinos of any race. Like many of the most affluent areas of the U.S. in the 21st century, Fairfax County is home to people from diverse backgrounds, including significant numbers of people of
Korean,
Indian,
Pakistani,
Vietnamese and
Jewish ancestry.
In 2000 there are 350,714 households, of which 36.30% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.40% were
married couples living together, 8.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.60% were non-families. 21.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.74 and the average family size was 3.20.
The age distribution was 25.40% under the age of 18, 7.50% from 18 to 24, 33.90% from 25 to 44, 25.30% from 45 to 64, and 7.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 98.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.20 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $81,050, and the median income for a family was $92,146; in a 2007 estimate, these figures rose to $102,460 and $120,804, respectively. Males had a median income of $60,503 versus $41,802 for females. The
per capita income for the county was $36,888. About 3.00% of families and 4.50% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 5.20% of those under age 18 and 4.00% of those age 65 or over. A more recent report from the 2007 American Community Survey indicated that
poverty in Fairfax County, Virginia had risen to 4.9%.
Judged by household median income, Fairfax County is among the
highest-income counties in the country, and was first on that list for many years. However, in the 2000 census it was overtaken by
Douglas County, Colorado. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2005, it had the second-highest median household income behind neighboring Loudoun County, at $94,610. In 2007, Fairfax County reclaimed its position as the richest county in America, in addition to becoming the first jurisdiction in American history to have a median household income in excess of $100,000. In 2008, Loudoun County reclaimed the first position, with Fairfax County a close second (although the U.S. Census Bureau notes that the difference is statistically insignificant).
Education
The county is served by the
Fairfax County Public Schools system, to which the county government allocates 52.2% of its fiscal budget. Including state and federal government contributions, along with citizen and corporate contributions, this brings the 2008 fiscal budget for the school system to $2.2 billion. The school system has estimated that, based on the 2008 fiscal year budget, the county will be spending $13,407 on each student.
The Fairfax County Public School system contains the
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a Virginia Governor's School. TJHSST consistently ranks at or near the top of all United States high schools due to the extraordinary number of National Merit Semi-Finalists and Finalists, the high average SAT scores of its students, and the number of students who annually perform nationally recognized research in the sciences and engineering.
George Mason University is located just outside the city of
Fairfax, near the geographic center of Fairfax County.
Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) serves Fairfax County with campuses in
Annandale and
Springfield a center in
Reston which is a satellite branch of the Loudoun campus. The NVCC
Alexandria campus borders Fairfax County. The
University of Fairfax is also headquartered in
Vienna, Virginia.
Economy
Fairfax County is, along with Washington, a "core" employment jurisdiction of the
Washington Metropolitan Area as indicated by this map. A U.S. Department of Labor study published in 2007 described Fairfax County as the second "economic pillar" of the Washington-area economy, along with the District of Columbia. The county has been described in
Time as "one of the great economic success stories of our time."
The economy of Fairfax County is a robust service economy. Many residents work for the government or for contractors of the federal government. The government is the largest employer, with
Fort Belvoir in southern Fairfax being the county's single largest employer. The economy of Fairfax County is larger than that of
Vietnam.
The top five largest private employers are the
Inova Health System,
Northrop Grumman,
Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC (
Science Applications International Corporation) and
Freddie Mac. Fairfax County also is home to large companies such as CSC (formerly
Computer Sciences Corporation),
Gannett,
Capital One,
General Dynamics, and
NVR. The county has five
Fortune 500 company headquarters, more than the rest of Northern Virginia. The county is also home to 11
Hispanic 500 companies, a ninth of the number found in the state of
California.
Volkswagen Group of America, CSC, and
Hilton Hotels Corporation have announced plans to move to Fairfax County after the county lost homegrown company headquarters
AOL and
Nextel. Volkswagen of America is headquartered in an
unincorporated area in the county.
ExxonMobil has various industry operations in Annandale, at a site that was formerly the headquarters of
Mobil Oil.
Compass Airlines has its headquarters in unincorporated Fairfax; in late 2009 the airline plans to relocate to
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The economy of the county is supported by the
Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, which provides services and information designed to promote Fairfax County as a leading business and technology center. The FCEDA is the largest non-state economic development authority in the nation. Fairfax County is also home to the Northern Virginia Technology Council, a trade association for local technology companies. It is the largest technology council in the nation, with technology industry figures such as
Bill Gates and
Meg Whitman speaking at various local
banquets. Fairfax County has a higher concentration of high-tech workers than the
Silicon Valley.
Tysons Corner
The
Tysons Corner CDP of Fairfax County is Virginia's largest office market and the largest suburban business district in the nation with of office space. It is the country's 12th-largest business district, and is expected to grow substantially in the decades to come. It contains a quarter of county's total office space inventory, which totaled at year-end 2006, which is about the size of
Lower Manhattan.
Every weekday, Tysons Corner draws over 100,000 workers from around the region. It also draws 55,000 shoppers every weekday as it is home to neighboring
super-regional malls Tysons Corner Center and
Tysons Galleria. In comparison, Washington, D.C. draws 15 million visitors annually, or the equivalent of 62,500 per weekday.
After years of stalling and controversy, the $5.2 billion expansion of
Washington Metro in Virginia from Washington, D.C. to
Dulles International Airport received funding approval from the
Federal Transit Administration in December 2008. The new line, informally dubbed the
Silver Line, will add four stations in Tysons Corner, including
a station between Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria.
Employment
The average weekly wage in Fairfax County during the first quarter of 2005 was $1,181, 52% more than the national average.
By comparison, the average weekly wage was $1,286 for
Arlington – the
Washington metropolitan area's highest – $1,277 for
Washington, D.C., and $775 for the
United States as a whole.
The types of jobs available in the area make it very attractive to highly-educated workers. The relatively high wages may be partially due to the high cost of living in the area.
In early 2005, Fairfax County had 553,107 total jobs, up from 372,792 in 1990. In the area, this is second to Washington's 658,505 jobs in 2005 (down from 668,532 in 1990).
As of the 2002 Economic Census, Fairfax County has the largest professional, scientific, and technical service sector in the Washington, D.C. area – in terms of the number of business establishments; total sales, shipments, and receipts; payrolls; and number of employees – exceeding the next largest, Washington, D.C., by roughly a quarter overall, and double that of neighboring Montgomery County.
Arts and culture
The annual "
Celebrate Fairfax!" festival is held in June at the Fairfax County Government Center in Fairfax City.
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts features a performing arts center situated outside the town of Vienna.
Fairfax County supports a summer concert series held in multiple venues throughout the county on various nights. The concert series are called
Arts in the Parks, Braddock Nights, Lee District Nights, Mt. Vernon Nights, Nottoway Nights, Spotlight by Starlight, Sounds of Summer and
Starlight Cinema.
Transportation
Roads
Several major highways run through Fairfax County, including the
Capital Beltway (
Interstate 495),
Interstate 66,
Interstate 95, and
Interstate 395. The
American Legion Bridge connects Fairfax to Montgomery County, Maryland. The
George Washington Memorial Parkway,
Dulles Toll Road, and
Fairfax County Parkway are also major arteries. Other notable roads include
Braddock Road,
Old Keene Mill Road,
Little River Turnpike, State Routes
7,
28, and
123, and US Routes
1,
29, and
50.
The county is in the Washington D.C. metro area, the nation's third most congested area.
Northern Virginia, including
Fairfax County, is the third worst
congested traffic area in the
nation, in terms of percentage of
congested roadways and time
spent in traffic. Of the lane miles
in the region, 44 percent are
rated “F” or worst for congestion.
Northern Virginia residents spend
an average of 46 hours a year
stuck in traffic.
Major highways
Air
Washington Dulles International Airport lies partly within Fairfax County and provides most air service to the county. Fairfax is also served by two other airports in the Washington area,
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and
Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Manassas Regional Airport, in neighboring
Prince William County, is also used for regional cargo and private jet service.
Public transportation
Fairfax County contracts its bus service called the
Fairfax Connector to
Veolia Transportation. It is also served by
WMATA's metrobus service. Fairfax County is served by the
Washington Metro trains. The
Orange,
Blue,
Yellow and the planned
Silver lines all serve Fairfax County. In addition,
VRE (Virginia Railway Express) provides commuter rail service with stations in
Lorton and
Franconia-Springfield. VRE's Fairfax County stations are
Lorton and
Franconia/Springfield on the
Fredericksburg line, and
Burke Centre,
Rolling Road, and
Backlick Road on the
Manassas line.
Biking and walking
The county maintains many miles of bike trails running through parks, adjacent to roads and through towns such as Vienna and Herndon. The
Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail runs through Fairfax County, offering one of the region's best, and safest, routes for recreational walking and biking. In addition, nine miles (14 km) of the
Mount Vernon Trail runs through Fairfax County along the Potomac River.
However, compared to other regions of the Washington area, Fairfax County has a dearth of designated
bike lanes for cyclists wishing to commute in the region. On May 16, 2008,
Bike-to-Work Day, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation released the first countywide bicycle route map.
The runs from Great Falls National Park in the northern end of the county to Occoquan Regional Park in the southern end. Consisting of mostly dirt paths and short asphalt sections, the trail is used mostly by recreational mountain bikers, hikers, and horse riders.
Parks and recreation
In addition to the
Fairfax County Park Authority, Fairfax County is part of the
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.
Fairfax County contains large amounts of
park land, a total of over 390 parks on more than .
The Reston Zoo is in the
Reston CDP in an
unincorporated area.
Towns, independent cities, and other localities
thumb|right|Herndonthumb|right|McLeanthumb|right|RestonThree incorporated towns,
Clifton,
Herndon, and
Vienna, are located entirely within Fairfax County.
The
independent cities of
Falls Church and
Fairfax were formed out of areas formerly under the jurisdiction of Fairfax County, but are politically separate, despite the status of the City of Fairfax as
county seat.
It has been proposed to convert the entire county into a single independent city, primarily to gain more control over taxes and roads. The most recent such proposal was made June 30, 2009.
Other communities within Fairfax County are unincorporated areas. Virginia law dictates that at least 100 members of the proposed municipality must sign a petition, the population of the proposed town must be at least 1,000 persons, and the population density of the affected county does not exceed 200 persons per square mile to begin the incorporation process. As of the
2000 census the thirteen largest communities of Fairfax County are all unincorporated
CDPs, the largest of which are
Burke,
Reston, and
Annandale, each with a population exceeding 50,000. (The largest incorporated place in the county is the town of
Herndon, its fourteenth-largest community.)
Unincorporated Census Designated Places
The following localities within Fairfax County are identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as (
unincorporated)
Census-Designated Places:
Other localities
Notable people from Fairfax County
See also
