Getting Oriented: Charlottesville Facts

Charlottesville Facts

A Top-Ranked City

#1 City in America, Frommer's Cities Ranked and Rated
In 2004, the Charlottesville metropolitan area, encompassing the city and Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Greene counties, beat out 402 other metro areas in the United States and Canada to claim the title in Frommer's Cities Ranked and Rated, authored by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander. Charlottesville was commended for its low unemployment and crime rates, good health care, temperate climate, and cultural amenities.
(The Daily Progress)

In 1998 Money magazine ranked Charlottesville Best Place to Live among Small Cities in the South, based on its economy, housing, weather, quality of life, pollution, and crime rate.

In 2004 Newsweek ranked UVA "Hottest for Fitness."

In 2003 Organic Style magazine named Charlottesville the healthiest city in Virginia and the 26th healthiest city in the nation.

In 2003 Outside magazine enlisted undergrad reporters to help its staff come up with "The 40 Best College Towns: The Coolest Places to Work, Play, Study, Party, and Live." Charlottesville was ranked eighth for its beauty, good music scene, culinary perks, Jeffersonian influences and swanky wineries.

Other rankings over the years include:

#1 - Best Climate on East Coast, American Association of State Climatologists
#1 - Tops among small cities in the ePodunk College Town Index, 2002
#1 - Tops in the state in the ePodunk Historic Small Towns Index, June 2001
#2 - Healthiest Place to Live, Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine
#6 - Top Ten Cities That Have It All, Arts & Entertainment TV
#7 - Best Place to Raise a Family, Reader’s Digest

Location and Climate

A half-hour to the west of Charlottesville is the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway through the Blue Ridge Mountains. A three-hour drive to the east brings you to Atlantic Ocean beaches. Richmond, the state capital, is only one hour away by car, and Washington, D.C., is just two hours north. The average July high is 88 degrees. The average January low is 26 degrees. Charlottesville averages over 200 days of sunshine a year.

Population

Charlottesville Population: 45,049 (as of 2000)
Albemarle County Population: 79,236
Charlottesville and surrounding counties: 144,000
2000 Census Population Statistics (including age, gender, race)

Quality of Life

Quality of Life at a Glance (Charlottesville.org)
Housing Statistics (see Housing for information on student housing)
Income/Income by Race
Marital Status
Birth Place of Residents
School Enrollment/Education Levels
Transportation/Commute Times

The University

As a $1.2 billion a year business, the University is the area's number-one employer, with more than 11,000 faculty and staff in the areas of information technology, engineering, research and development, business, finance, administration, public relations, athletics, and facilities management. UVA encompasses a vast complex of schools, a level-one trauma center and teaching hospital, research facilities, as well as arts and athletic venues.

With a total student body of approximately 18,500 and a faculty of more than 2,000, the University of Virginia has achieved national prominence in many disciplines and for four of the last eight years has been ranked as the nation’s top public university, a judgment based on faculty strength, student achievement, satisfaction of alumni, and numerous other factors.

Odds & Ends

Charlottesville was named for Princess Charlotte, wife of George III.

Charlottesville was the filming location for 1991 movie, "True Colors" (which focuses on friends from law school) and 1995 movie, "Major Payne." The nearby Miller School was the location for "Toy Soldiers."

Charlottesville and its surrounding areas have their share of celebs, including Sissy Spacek, Howie Long, Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid; authors John Grisham, Tami Hoag (mysteries), Jan Karon (Jessica Mitford series), and Rita Mae Brown (Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries); and former poet laureate Rita Dove (The Hook 2003-2004 Annual Manual).

Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe all called Charlottesville or its environs home, as did explorer Meriwether Lewis.

The Dave Matthews Band put in its time as a college band in Charlottesville and some of its band members still call the town home. DMB manager Coran Capshaw is a major real estate developer in Charlottesville.