Happy Birthday Virginia!

June 25, 1788 was the date that the “Mother of Presidents” state was admitted into the United States. Since then, Virginia has become known for the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay along with its natural statewide landscape. In this state, coal mining takes place in three mountainous regions with 45 distinct coal beds.

Since 2000, the Parks and Recreation expenditures in the state have increased by more than $89.08 million. And in 2012, this budget was the highest reaching $190.39 million. The Appalachian Trail is 2,200 miles long, which makes it the longest hiking-only trail in the world. From start to finish, it would take about 6 months to walk the entire trail. But hiking the trail comes at a price. On-trail costs on to hike amount to roughly $1,000 a month (not including gear), so for anyone willing to walk the entire trail, they’re looking at paying a total of around $6,000. There are also over 4,000 caves open to the public for hiking located in the Luray Caverns and the Skyline Caverns throughout the state.

Virginia typically spends about 0.6 percent of its general revenue on natural resources, but in 2011 and 2012, they spent more than double that on natural resources. After this spike, it went down significantly in 2013, but has been increasing slightly ever since. Virginia still spends about half of the 50-state average on natural resources, but they certainly are growing.

In terms of foreign-born residents, Virginia only has 12.54 percent as of 2017. From 2006-2017, this percentage increased by only 2.42 percent. This has contributed to the steady population increase in Virginia over the last 12 years. In fact, they have added just under 840,000 residents from 2006 to 2018!

Virginia’s economy caters to many kinds of income, including everything from local and federal government, to military workers, and to farming and business. As of 2018, 1.18 percent of the population are farm employees. Virginian farmers are able to grow all different types of crops including corn, grain, potatoes, snap peas, cucumbers, sweet corn, apples and grapes.

You can learn more interesting facts about Virginia and the rest of the 50 states by making your own charts using State Data Lab. Happy 231st birthday, Virginia!

Georgia Evans is a social media and analytics intern for Truth in Accounting, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Chicago that researches government financial data.