HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) - Hampton Roads has seen a decrease in young people living in the area, as they are packing up and moving to rural areas due to the rise of remote working and cheaper cost of living.

All of Virginia is experiencing this trend.

"If you look at the first four years of the 2010s, you look at the parts of Virginia outside the three biggest metro areas, places like Charlottesville and rural areas like Southside, and they lost about 10,000 young adults in the first four years of [the] 2010s," said Hamilton Lombard, a demographer at the University of Virginia. "Since 2020, they've gained 15,000. So, it's been a real reversal,"

According to an article from Cardinal News, smaller counties and towns throughout the state are seeing a rise in the 25-44 age group.

"You see that opposite trend in a lot of urban areas where they've been losing far more young adults or just attracting fewer than in the past," Lombard said.

Lombard said housing prices have increased significantly, and young people are going to places they can afford.

"They're the most sensitive typically to higher home prices," Lombard said. "Looking further out, having remote work being an option for many, and also just the tight labor market, meaning there are more jobs out in place to go to [in] Isle of Wight than a decade ago, is causing more young adults in the region to move out to places like the Isle of Wight."

While rural areas do have an older population, as people die, their deaths are still outnumbering births and the people moving to that locality. The article states the two big reasons Virginia's population is slowing down are the declining birthrates and immigration.

"The number of people turning 18 is going to start declining after this year. So unless you have immigration, you're not growing," Lombard said. "So communities are going to be competing more and more for workers just to try to keep the workforce shrinking. So these rural areas, seeing that kind of growth, it's a really positive indicator for them. When you look at some other parts of Hampton Roads, like Virginia Beach, that can be a concern."

The population in areas such as Sussex, Surry and the Isle of Wight counties are growing younger while Suffolk's is staying the same, and the rest of Hampton Roads' population is growing older.

"A lot of the big urban areas like Virginia Beach and Fairfax County are struggling to keep or attract workers," Lombard said. "And Hampton Roads has had some difficulties there in the past. But it's going to be an environment where if you're not attracting workers, you're shrinking."