Mecklenburg County, Virginia

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Microsoft

Resi rate Δ (Dominion Energy Virginia)

+7.2%

Home price Δ (3y)

-12.7%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+4.8%

Population (2024 ACS)

31K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$57,045

Key takeaways

Mecklenburg County has 30,431 residents and Boydton the seat has 302. Microsoft started its $500 million Boydton campus in 2010 and expanded it for another $350 million in 2014, the oldest hyperscaler footprint in this batch.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003 (Mecklenburg County, VA and Boydton) + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Boydton, Virginia)
Median household income in Mecklenburg County is $51,691 and the median home value is $169,400, the lowest home value and the lowest income of any Virginia county in this batch. Only 21.2% of residents over 25 hold a bachelor's degree, less than half of Loudoun's share.Source: Census ACS 2023 B19013, B25077, B15003 (FIPS 51117)
Home prices in Mecklenburg County fell 12.7% over three years, the only county in this batch where Redfin shows a negative home-price delta. The 64 trailing-3-month sales is the lowest sales volume of any county in this batch, so the swing reflects a thin market as much as a softening one.Source: data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 51117)
Dominion Energy Virginia residential rates rose 7.2% from 2021 to 2023, the same delta Loudoun and Prince William residents face despite the gap in incomes. A Boydton household at the $51,691 median feels that rate increase roughly three times harder than a Loudoun household at $178,707.Source: data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (Virginia Electric & Power Co, VA) + Census ACS 2023 B19013

Mecklenburg is 32.9% Black against a 61.9% white share and just 3.0% Hispanic. The Black population share is the largest of any county in this batch and a sharper contrast against Loudoun's 7.7% than any income gap.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001, B03003 (FIPS 51117)
Only 71.8% of Mecklenburg households have a home broadband subscription, the lowest broadband share of any county in this batch. Microsoft's $850 million Boydton campus moves cloud bytes for the world from a county where 28% of households have no home internet.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (FIPS 51117)
17.4% of Mecklenburg residents live below the poverty line and median gross rent is $804 per month. Both numbers put the county closer to rural West Virginia or West Texas than to neighboring Dominion Virginia data-center counties.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001, B25064 (FIPS 51117)
Unemployment is just 3.0% on a small 12,887-person labor force, the tightest market of any Virginia county in this batch outside Loudoun. Manufacturing already employs 9.6% of workers, the largest manufacturing share of the six Virginia counties here.Source: Census ACS 2023 B23025, C24050 (FIPS 51117)