About Hampton Roads

The Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia is comprised of 17 communities – ten cities, six counties, and one town. Despite a population nearing 1.6 million and unlike many of the metropolitan areas across the country, Hampton Roads’ population is not centered in one city, but spread broadly throughout the region. Designated in the late 17th century as the name of the world's largest natural harbor, Hampton Roads is where the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth Rivers pour into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

To call Hampton Roads rich in history is perhaps the greatest understatement, as Virginia and ultimately the nation were founded when European settlers first landed at Jamestown in 1607. General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown in 1781, in the last major engagement of the American Revolutionary War. The Civil War battle of the ironclads, the Confederate Merrimac and Union Monitor, occurred in the waters of Hampton Roads on March 8-9, 1862, changing forever the nature of naval warfare. Colonial Williamsburg has been described as the world’s largest living museum, and is perhaps the nation’s premier educational and historical resource on early American life.

Since 1983, Hampton Roads has been recognized by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget as a group of communities having economic and social integration. At that time, the two areas that constitute Hampton Roads -- South Hampton Roads and the Virginia Peninsula, which are separated by the harbor -- were combined to form one Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) now designated as the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA.

Hampton Roads is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the southeastern United States, and the largest between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. Hampton Roads’ labor force surpasses 750,000 and unemployment averages between 4 and 5 percent. Over 15,000 highly-skilled workers exit the military in Hampton Roads each year and the region is home to over 70,000 university and community college students. The military, manufacturing, the Port of Virginia, high technology, and tourism are major drivers in Hampton Roads’ $54 billion economy.

The military has long been a mainstay of the Hampton Roads economy, and today the region boasts the largest concentration of military personnel in the nation, with forces stationed at such critical defense facilities as Naval Station Norfolk (the largest naval facility in the world), Langley Air Force Base, Oceana Naval Air Station, Little Creek Amphibious Base, Fort Eustis, Fort Monroe, and Fort Story, and more. Total military and civilian defense-related employment in Hampton Roads surpasses 111,000.

Hampton Roads is rich, too, in intellectual resources. The region is home to eight colleges and universities and two federal laboratories: The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, a U.S. Department of Energy facility that conducts basic and applied atomic research, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Langley Research Center, an 800-acre facility conducting research in aviation and space sciences.

A pre-eminent maritime center, the region is thoroughly entwined and proudly identified with the water, included 26 miles of Atlantic Ocean beaches, the Chesapeake Bay, and a host of picturesque rivers and inlets. Hampton Roads is blessed with environmental assets, as well, including First Landing State Park, False Cape State Park, the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and Plum Tree Island National Wildlife Refuge, to name a few.