The University's Weldon Cooper Center unveiled its recent provisional population growth estimates for the Commonwealth on Friday.
According to the report, metropolitan areas like Charlottesville, including surrounding Albemarle County, and Richmond are growing at rates of 5 percent. By comparison, Northern Virginia is growing at a rate of 12 percent.
"Charlottesville City and Albemarle County are two separate, but closely related political jurisdictions," said Dr. Julia Martin, director of Demographics and Workforce section of the Weldon Cooper Center. "The City of Charlottesville has actually been losing population for quite awhile, but Albemarle County has been gaining population."
However, some believe the City's population is more stable than the study suggests.
"I think that the population of the City is pretty stable, a little over 40,000," Mayor David E. Brown said. "It's anticipated to grow moderately, but not significantly."
Council Member Blake Caravati said he also believed that the population has remained constant.
"I wouldn't say that the population is declining," Caravati said. "Some years it might grow less than one percent or decline less than one percent, but the line is pretty stable. I would, personally, say that growth is static."
The lack of open land available for expansion may be contributing to the City's population stagnation.
"The main thing is that we're landlocked," Mayor Brown said.
The City's location within Albemarle County also plays a key role in its population growth.
"Charlottesville is an island in the middle of the ocean that is Albemarle County," Dr. Martin said. "Housing availability is low, and prices are high."
Despite the recent decline in population growth, there is some evidence of future expansion.
"In the last three or four years, the real estate industry has come alive," Caravati said. "The amount of residential housing available for middle income families has increased significantly in the past three to four years."
The City also will consider alternative ways to continue to accommodate growth -- including taller buildings, Brown said.
The Weldon Cooper Center is a public service organization at the University involved with demographics analysis and workforce management.The center also studies economics and business data, and performs a variety of other functions.
Every year the Weldon Cooper Center completes population estimates for each of the Commonwealth's 134 localities in the state of Virginia.
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