Henrico County, Virginia

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Key takeaways

Henrico County has 334,434 residents and is the fifth-most-populous county in Virginia. The Meta Sandston campus sits in the White Oak Technology Park east of Richmond International Airport, the same park that hosts QTS Richmond.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003 (Henrico County, VA) + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Henrico County, Virginia)
45.7% of Henrico residents over 25 hold a bachelor's degree against a median household income of $86,397 and a $333,600 median home value. The data-center workforce competes with VCU Health, Capital One, and the State of Virginia for the same college-educated talent pool.Source: Census ACS 2023 B15003, B19013, B25077 (FIPS 51087)
Henrico property tax assessments rose 12.8% over three years on a $2,565 median bill, the steepest property-tax move of any Virginia county in this batch. Home prices rose 5.3% over the same window, well below the assessment growth.Source: data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv (FIPS 51087) + data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv
Dominion Energy Virginia residential rates rose 7.2% from 2021 to 2023, the same rate-delta hitting every Dominion-served county in this batch. The Meta Sandston campus has been operating since the original Facebook lease in 2017 and was on the grid before the AI-era rate-of-load shock began.Source: data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (Virginia Electric & Power Co, VA) + data/sites/data_centers.csv

Henrico is 29.7% Black, 9.5% Asian, and 6.7% Hispanic against a 51.3% white share, the most racially balanced county in this batch. The Asian share is the second-highest behind Loudoun's 21.0% and the Black share is the highest in any Virginia data-center county here.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001, B03003 (FIPS 51087)
Only 64.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, the lowest ownership rate of the six Virginia counties in this batch. Median gross rent is $1,474 per month, comparable to Chesterfield's $1,542.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25003, B25064 (FIPS 51087)
8.4% of Henrico residents live below the poverty line and 3.9% of the workforce is unemployed. Manufacturing employs only 5.9% of workers, less than Chesterfield's 6.9% despite hosting Meta and QTS at the White Oak Technology Park.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001, B23025, C24050 (FIPS 51087)
91.8% of Henrico households have a home broadband subscription, in line with Chesterfield's 93.9% but well below Loudoun's 96.7%. The data centers serving global traffic from Sandston cannot fully close the gap inside their own county.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (FIPS 51087)