Abington, Va

By the start of the nineteenth century Abingdon had become a central population hub in Southwest Virginia, being one of the bigger towns in the area and is still currently the most populated town in Washington County. Washington County’s county seat, Abington, boasts approximately 8,200 people as of just two years ago in 2010. The town is predominantly white with greater than ninety two percent of locals; where as just over three percent are of African American decent. Thusly leaving the remaining less than five percent to Hispanic, Asian, mixed races and American Indian. Recent analysis of the town from this year show females to be the more dominate of genders in Abingdon with just over fifty three percent of the total population.

Abingdon’s huge population boom of the 1980’s decade, which increased the population by over sixty-two percent in just ten years, provided the town with a strong population base of youth. The population increased from approximately 4,300 to 7,000 in that short amount of time. This meaning that their population looked like a perfect pyramid with a long base and gradually less people per age group, as age increased. This boosted the town’s economy as a larger portion of the population moved into their workforce, which is primarily agriculture, specifically organic agriculture.

With all this said, thirty years down the road from the huge population boom, the population increase rate is now just a much smaller five percent since 2000. Fewer couples are having children in modern times, and families that are having children are having fewer than before. One can only assume that this is due to the raise in costs of bringing up a child and that Abingdon county is not particularly a wealthy community with the average household income barely exceeding $30,000 annually and five percent of the population of the workforce age, roughly 410 people, are without jobs.

Over these thirty some years the bulk age group of people living in the town has moved to the forties, with the average age of the population 43.6 years old. Though this is just slightly higher than Virginia’s average population of 43.4 years, the huge decrease in birthrates is ultimately threating to the town itself. Imagine again the population pyramid of this town. Instead of a perfect pyramid shape, it has currently taken the diamond form; a wider form in the median age groups with much slimmer base and tops of the pyramid. Abington has over forty six percent of their population above forty five years of age and over twenty seven percent between the ages of twenty five and forty four. A summary of these numbers would show the population of Abingdon to be generally older. Thusly the percentage of the population in the workforce is decreasing annually, weakening their towns economic ability and gains.