Fairfax County’s minority population has increased significantly over the past 10 years — and new data released from the Census Bureau last week show that the area is especially attractive to residents from India, Korea and El Salvador.
Fairfax residents with an Indian background nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010, from 24,955 to 43,956, according to census data, and residents of Korean ethnicity increased from 27,684 to 41,356. Residents with an Asian background now make up about 10 percent of Fairfax’s population.
Though the majority of Asians currently living in Fairfax are foreign-born, many didn’t come straight to Northern Virginia after leaving their home country, said Stephen Fuller, the director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.
“They come from Berkeley or Stanford — they’re not right off the airplane. They have Ph.Ds.,” he said. “They’re going to where the jobs are, and a lot of them are coming here on work visas.”
Fairfax County’s robust business climate — one that created nearly 10,000 jobs last year — and its strong government presence, with defense giants like Northrop Grumman calling the county home, attract residents with skills in information technology, math and science, Fuller said. And well over half of Fairfax’s employed Asian population — 59.6 percent — works in management, business, science or the arts.
The area is also attracting a increasing number of Hispanic residents, especially those with a Salvadoran background. That community increased by more than 22,000 over the past decade. Fairfax’s relative wealth — its median income is $103,000 — has created a number of jobs in the service industry, Fuller said, and 36 percent of employed Hispanic residents have jobs there. Twenty-two-point-seven percent work in management, business, science or the arts.
Fuller said residents with a Salvadoran background have a long history in the area.
“They came here originally as political refugees in the 1980s. [Those immigrants] may have started the movement and been followed by others,” he said. Now, the region has a large Salvadoran community, he said.
Fairfax officials say they’re proud of the county’s diversity and job offerings.
“I can tell, just in my own neighborhood, how diverse our community is becoming,” said Sharon Bulova, chairwoman of Fairfax’s Board of Supervisors. “As far as jobs go, Fairfax has been fortunate during these recession years, having pretty good continued growth in jobs. While other parts of the region and other parts of the country have struggled with unemployment, we’ve held our own.”
