Greater Richmond Region

Richmond-Petersburg is a region located in a central part of the State of Virginia in the United States. It straddles the Fall Line, the meeting zone of the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont on the James River at Richmond and the Appomattox River at Petersburg, each of which were established as ports in the 17th century.

The area is composed of four independent cities, Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights, and nine counties, Chesterfield, Powhatan, Goochland, New Kent, Charles City, Prince George,Virginia|Prince George Dinwiddie Henrico, Hanover. The town of Ashland is located in Hanover County.

The Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSS) which includes Petersburg, Hopewell and adjacent counties is home to approximately 842,000 Virginians.

The region is well-situated to play an important role, located approximately equidistant from Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Lynchburg. The area is home to the state's center of gravity of population--which, in 1980 was located thirty miles west of Richmond near the Powhatan-Goochland County border.

The area benefits from an excellent position in reference to the state's transportation network, lying at the junctions of I-64, I-95, and I-85, several of the most heavily traveled highways in the state, as well as along several major rail lines.

The Richmond MSA provides employment for a total of approximately 472,000 workers. In order of the number of workers, the major employment categories of the region are services; retail trade; manufacturing; state government; finance, insurance and real estate; local government; construction; wholesale trade; transportation and public utilities and federal government. Within the manufacturing category of some 63,700 employees, the largest category of workers is in the tobacco industry. Other important manufacturing categories are chemicals, printing and publishing, paper, and wood manufactures.

This economic diversity, which is typical of the entire Richmond-Petersburg region, helps to insulate it from hardship due to economic fluctuation in particular sectors of the economy. The region's central location also allows it to benefit from growth in other regions of Virginia and the state as a whole.