Arlington County, Virginia

Arlington County, often called simply Arlington, is a county in the U.S. state of Virginia. It sits in the Washington metropolitan area and the wider Northern Virginia region, directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the smallest self-governing county in the United States by area. Arlington has both quiet suburban neighborhoods and busier urban areas, and the urban areas are near several Washington Metro stations and lines. The county's seat of government is in the Court House neighborhood, which holds many of its offices and the county courthouse.

Arlington was first home to the Nacotchtank people before the Colony of Virginia was established in 1606. English colonists began settling there by the 1670s, and in 1742 the area became part of Fairfax County. In those early days, the economy was mostly based on tobacco farming on large plantations, worked by enslaved labor and indentured servants. After the Revolutionary War ended, the planters and yeoman farmers began growing other crops. Virginia gave up the land that is now Arlington to help form the District of Columbia, and starting in 1801 the area was known as Alexandria County. In 1847 it was returned to Virginia, after pressure from Alexandria, the county's main business center.

During the Civil War, Arlington was part of the Union's defenses of Washington, which caused great damage to its land and economy. Later, after the Civil War, the black community gained the right to vote in local and state elections, but by the 1880s local conservative Southern Democrats had restored white supremacy. By the early 20th century, Jim Crow laws and racial segregation were in place in Arlington. Growth in the county's suburbs continued with an expanding trolley network and more federal workers arriving. Despite opposition from Virginia's massive resistance campaign and other groups, Arlington became the first county in Virginia to desegregate its schools in 1959, and its businesses in 1960, after a series of sit-in protests.

Arlington's modern economy has been shaped greatly by several Metrorail lines, which, through planning that began in the 1960s, became the center of its urban corridors. Many federal government agencies are based in Arlington, including the Pentagon, which houses the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. Companies such as Boeing and RTX Corporation also have offices in the county. Colleges and universities with main or satellite campuses there include George Mason University, Marymount University, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech. Arlington is also home to Arlington National Cemetery, a military cemetery established in 1864, where more than 400,000 members of the U.S. Armed Forces are buried. Visitors come to see sites such as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and other military memorials in Arlington include the Marine Corps War Memorial and Air Force Memorial.

History

Further information: Native American tribes in Virginia

Further information: Colony of Virginia

Main article: District of Columbia retrocession

Further information: Virginia in the American Civil War

Further information: Washington Metro

Native American peoples lived in the area for thousands of years before European colonization. When John Smith arrived in 1608, the Nacotchtank lived there, but by 1679 they had left. Colonists settled along the rivers, building large plantations where tobacco was grown, and enslaved people worked the land. The area was part of Fairfax County from 1742. When the federal capital was set up nearby, the area became part of the federal district and then Alexandria County, which returned to Virginia in 1847. During the Civil War, the area mostly supported the Union. Union troops occupied the county and built defenses, and the Freedman's Village settlement was founded in 1863 for formerly enslaved people. The Union government took over the estate of Robert E. Lee, which became a burial place in 1864.

After the war, the county's economy was weakened, and segregation laws limited the lives of Black residents. Alexandria County was renamed Arlington County in 1920, and it grew into a suburb of Washington, with Rosslyn and Clarendon becoming important places. During the Jim Crow era, Black residents faced unfair rules, and it was not until the 1950s and 1960s that civil rights activists won major changes, including school integration and an end to legal housing discrimination. Federal workers moved in during the New Deal era, and the Pentagon was built during World War II. The Orange Line of the Washington Metro opened in 1979 and helped the county grow into a business center. On September 11, 2001, the Pentagon was attacked during the September 11 attacks. In recent years, companies such as Amazon and Boeing have set up headquarters in Arlington, and the population has become more diverse.

Geography

Arlington County is in the Washington metropolitan area and the Northern Virginia region. It is surrounded by Fairfax County and Falls Church to the west, the city of Alexandria to the southeast, and Washington, D.C. to the northeast, across the Potomac River. The county covers 67 square kilometers (26 square miles) and is the smallest self-governing county in the United States. It sits on a fall line between the Appalachian Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain, which are separated by geologic provinces. The Piedmont has terrain that is highly eroded, with rolling hills. The county's highest point, Minor's Hill, rises 451 feet above sea level. The Coastal Plain is mostly flat. Four Mile Run, Pimmit Run, and other small streams all flow into the Potomac River, and some have deep valleys cut by erosion.

Arlington County has a humid subtropical climate, with hot, humid summers and mild to moderately cold winters. On average, the county gets about 41.82 inches (1,062 millimeters) of precipitation a year and about 13.7 inches (35 centimeters) of snow, most of it in February. Arlington can also experience extreme weather such as hurricanes and blizzards, including Agnes in 1972, Isabel in 2003, and the 2010 "Snowmaggedon" snowstorm. Both hurricanes caused severe flooding and property damage. Flooding on Four Mile Run damaged neighborhoods in the past, until parts of the stream were channelized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1980s. Growth in impervious surfaces has made stormwater harder to manage, and the stream needs periodic dredging. Because of climate change, these floods have become more frequent and more extreme.

See also: List of neighborhoods in Arlington County, Virginia

Since Metro service opened in the 1970s, Arlington has become heavily urbanized. The county's smart growth approach, sometimes called the "Bull's Eye" model, encourages dense, mixed-use development within walking distance of Metro stations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave Arlington a national smart growth award in 2002, and the American Planning Association gave its plan a national award in 2017. Outside the urban areas, Arlington is mostly residential and suburban, and single-family homes made up around 75% of its land in 2023. Several major arterial roads and highways, including Interstate 395, Interstate 66, U.S. Route 50, and U.S. Route 1, connect the county to the wider Washington area.

Urbanization in the 20th century greatly changed Arlington's ecosystem, as many natural streams, wetlands, and forests were buried, reclaimed, or removed. Animals such as raccoons and red foxes are common. White-tailed deer were nearly gone from Virginia by 1900, but they have grown in number in Arlington since reintroduction and conservation programs began in the 1940s. Around half of the county's plants are non-native, and invasive species such as English Ivy and Kudzu have been found there.

Arlington has tried to address environmental degradation in its watershed, which has been partly restored to improve water quality and wildlife habitat. Projects have included living shorelines planted with native plants and converting stormwater catchment ponds into wetlands. A 2011 project revived a rare Magnolia bog in Barcroft Park. Native fish include the American eel, Eastern blacknose dace, and White sucker, while invasive snakehead and carp are also present.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census, Arlington County had 238,643 people. The median age was 34.0 years. About 17.6% of residents were under 18, and 10.6% were 65 or older. Most residents were White (60.9%). Other groups included Black or African American (8.7%), American Indian and Alaska Native (0.7%), Asian (11.5%), Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.1%), and people of two or more races (10.8%). Hispanic or Latino residents of any race made up 15.7% of the population. All residents lived in urban areas. The county had 109,912 households and 119,085 housing units. The population grew by 14.9% since 2010.

According to the American Community Survey's 2023 estimates, the median age is 35.7, and 12.4% of people are over 65. The largest age group is adults aged 25 to 29, who make up 12.8% of the population. About 77.7% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher, and 21.7% were born outside the United States.

Economy

See also: List of federal agencies in Northern Virginia and List of companies headquartered in Northern Virginia

In 2023, Arlington County's GDP totaled $47.3 billion. Because it is so close to Washington, Arlington's economy depends heavily on the federal government. Many of its companies provide consulting, engineering, or technology services to defense and civilian agencies. The Pentagon, Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall, and other federal institutions are also major parts of the county's economic activity. Companies from outside the federal sector have also opened offices and headquarters in Arlington over the past several decades, and the county government has encouraged this, especially in technology, through tax incentives. Arlington's economy is mostly service-based. In 2025, most of its estimated 221,200 workers had jobs in professional services, technology companies, or federal, state, and local government. Public employees made up about 20% of the workforce. Many private companies in Arlington work as contractors for government agencies in Washington, including Deloitte, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Accenture. Large defense and aerospace companies such as Boeing, RTX Corporation, and Lockheed Martin are headquartered in Arlington or have offices there. Companies like Amazon, Costar, and Nestlé also operate in the county, along with many non-profit organizations and advocacy groups.

About 70% of Arlington's jobs are in its "planning corridors," and most of those are in the Rosslyn-Ballston area. Work from home, which spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, continues today, with 31.5% of workers working full time from home in 2023. This has contributed to an office vacancy rate that rose to 24.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024. Arlington's unemployment rate has been below the average for the Washington metropolitan area since at least 2015. However, because so many people work in government, the county is vulnerable to cuts in federal spending. Unemployment rose to 3.3% in May 2025 after broad spending cuts, layoffs, and contract cancellations across many government agencies during the second Trump Administration. Arlington is also one of the wealthiest municipalities in the United States, with a mean annual income of $114,097. Its wealth is concentrated in the wealthier northern neighborhoods, while the southern areas, which are more diverse and have more immigrant families, have lower incomes and higher poverty. Housing is expensive, with an average rent of $2,549 in 2024, and more than 38% of homes valued at $1 million or more. Homelessness has been rising since 2021, and tourism brought 7.1 million visitors in 2023, supporting 27,567 jobs.

Culture

Arlington County is part of Northern Virginia, a region shaped by its closeness to Washington and its many federal government jobs. These jobs have drawn highly educated, well-off people from other states and countries, so the culture is more international and northern than in Virginia's southern regions. Arlington has communities from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The Columbia Pike area has welcomed immigrants since Southeast Asians began arriving after the Fall of Saigon in the 1970s. Today its residents come from over 150 nationalities, and the area is known for its wide variety of international food.

Arlington County is home to Arlington National Cemetery and several military and civilian memorials, including the Air Force Memorial, Marine Corps War Memorial, and National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. The cemetery attracts more than 3 million visitors a year, many of whom visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded all year by the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry, the John F. Kennedy Gravesite, with its eternal flame, and the Military Women's Memorial. More than 400,000 members of the U.S. Armed Forces are buried there. Local museums include the Arlington Historical Museum, housed in the 1891 Hume School, the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, which is in the historic Clarendon School building.

Each year the county hosts cultural events, such as the Arlington County Fair, first held in 1977, and music festivals and summer concerts. Major sporting events include the Marine Corps Marathon, which has run through Arlington every fall since 1976, and the Armed Forces Association Cycling Classic, a summer road bicycle race held in Crystal City and Clarendon since 1998.

Government and politics

Since 1930, Arlington County has been governed by a board of supervisors. The board appoints a county manager, who runs the county's daily work. Each of the board's five members is elected at-large to a four-year term, and the terms are staggered. Since 2023, primary elections for county board seats have used ranked-choice voting. At a meeting every January, the board members choose a chair and a vice-chair. The chair is the official head of county government, but has the same power as the other members and cannot veto decisions. Other elected county officials include the school board, the county clerk of the circuit court, the commissioner of the revenue, the commonwealth's attorney, the sheriff, and the treasurer.

In Virginia's General Assembly, Arlington has three members of the House of Delegates, from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Districts, and two members of the Senate, from the 39th and 40th Districts. Delegates serve two-year terms, and senators serve four-year terms. In the U.S. Congress, Arlington is part of Virginia's 8th congressional district in the House of Representatives. Don Beyer, a Democrat, has represented this district since 2015. Virginia's two members of the Senate serve six-year terms. Mark Warner has held one seat since 2009, and Tim Kaine has held the other since 2013, both as Democrats. Arlington was once a conservative area, but it has been a strong supporter of the Democratic Party since the 1980s. Democrats have won most of its local offices for decades. In 2014, John Vihstadt, a Republican running as an independent, won a county board seat, becoming the first non-Democrat to win a county board general election since 1983. Recent debates have focused on rising living costs, the shortage of affordable housing, and how the county should grow.

Education

Primary and secondary education

Arlington Public Schools runs the county's public K-12 schools, which include 22 elementary schools, six middle schools, and three high schools. It also runs two special secondary programs: H-B Woodlawn, which uses an alternative style of learning, and Arlington Tech, which focuses on science, technology, engineering, and math. The school system has about 3,000 teachers and around 28,000 students, making it Virginia's 13th largest public school division. A school board of five members, elected to overlapping four-year terms, governs it. Although board members officially run without a party label, political parties can endorse them. Arlington also has several private and religious schools, including the Catholic Bishop O'Connell High School.

Colleges and universities

Many universities, such as George Mason University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, and Northeastern University, have satellite campuses in Arlington County. Marymount University, a private Catholic university started in 1950 by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, is the only university with its main campus in Arlington County.

Transportation

Two interstate highways run through Arlington County: Interstate 66 and Interstate 395. Some Virginia state highways, including Virginia State Route 123, Virginia State Route 124, Virginia State Route 233, Virginia State Route 237, and Virginia State Route 309, and U.S. Routes, including U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 29, and U.S. Route 50, also run through the county. The Virginia Department of Transportation operates and maintains these highways. The George Washington Memorial Parkway, a landscaped parkway along the Potomac River shoreline, is managed by the National Park Service. The street naming system, first adopted in 1934, uses U.S. Route 50 as the dividing line between northern and southern street names. Named streets generally run north to south in alphabetical order starting at the Potomac River, and numbered streets run east to west.

Further information: Arlington Transit, Virginia Railway Express, and Washington Metro

The county is served by the WMATA Metrorail and Metrobus systems, along with the local Arlington Transit (ART) bus service. The Virginia Railway Express provides commuter rail service and has a station in Arlington's Crystal City neighborhood. Arlington also co-owns the Capital Bikeshare bicycle-sharing system, which had over 100 stations across the county as of 2021 and offers traditional bikes and e-bikes. Arlington has built protected bike lanes and trails, and the League of American Bicyclists named it a Gold-level community for bicycle-friendliness in 2024. The county also has around 49 miles of paved trails, including major shared-use paths such as the W&OD, Custis, Four Mile Run, and Mount Vernon Trails.

Main article: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is Arlington County's only airport. It sits near Gravelly Point on reclaimed land. Most of its non-stop flights go to destinations across the United States, and it also offers international flights to Canada, Bermuda, and the Caribbean. Travelers can reach it by the Blue and Yellow Lines at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport station.

Parks and recreation

Further information: NOVA Parks

Arlington County has 164 parks, 13 community centers, and over 100 sports facilities. Glencarlyn Park is one of the county's largest parks at 100 acres. It sits along Four Mile Run and has nature trails, playgrounds, and a nature center with exhibits about Arlington's local ecosystem.

The Long Bridge Aquatic and Fitness Center opened in 2021. It is a 92,000 square foot indoor building for swimming and recreation. It has Arlington's only 50-meter competition pool, a gym, and rooms for community meetings. National Park Service manages the Mount Vernon Trail, which is part of the larger Potomac Heritage Trail. NOVA Parks runs the W&OD trail.

Sister cities

The Arlington Sister City Association (ASCA) is a nonprofit group connected to Arlington County, Virginia. It works to promote the region's international profile and to encourage exchanges in education, business, culture, and the arts through a range of activities. Established in 1993, ASCA supports and coordinates the activities of the county's five sister cities.

The five sister cities are Aachen, in Germany; Coyoacán (Mexico City), in Mexico; Ivano-Frankivsk, in Ukraine; Reims, in France; and San Miguel, in El Salvador.

Notable people

Main article: List of people from Arlington, Virginia