Fairfax County: Fun facts

Fairfax County has issued a brief report highlighting key economic and demographic data for fiscal year 2022.

According to the Popular Annual Financial Report, Fairfax County’s unemployment rate for FY 2022 is just 2.5 percent, compared to the national rate of 3.6 percent. That’s a sharp drop from the county’s 8.1 percent rate in FY 2020.

The 10 largest employers in the county are:

• The federal government
• Fairfax County Public Schools
• Fairfax County government
• Inova Health System
• George Mason University
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Amazon
• Capital One
• Science Applications International Corp.
• Federal Home Loan Mortgage (Freddie Mac)

Here are some more highlights from the report:

• Fairfax County is home to more than 8,800 technology-focused enterprises and nine Fortune 500 headquarters.

• The largest piece of the employment pie, 24 percent, consists of workers in professional, scientific, and technical services.

• Among the county’s 1.17 million+ residents, 53 percent identify as a racial/ethnic minority.

• 40 percent of residents over age 5 speak a language other than English at home.

• Broken down by age, 25.9 percent of the population are under age 20, 33.7 percent are age 20-24, 26.9 percent are 45-65, and 13.5 percent are 65 or older.

• Nearly half (47.1 percent) of Fairfax County residents are White, 20.3 percent are Asian, 17. 3 percent are Hispanic, 9.4 percent are Black, and 5.9 percent are “other.”

• Among students at Fairfax County Public Schools, 36.9 percent are White, 27.4 percent are Hispanic, 19.4 percent are Asian, 9.9 percent are Black, 6.1 percent are two or more races, and 0.3 percent are American Indian.

• FCPS enrolls more than 178,000 students in prekindergarten through grade 12 in 199 schools and centers.

• The average annual per-student cost is $16,505.

• Fairfax County government increased revenue by $98.1 million from about $5.7 billion in FY 2021 to $5.8 billion in FY 2022.

• Total county expenses for 2022 were $5.35 billion in 2022, down from $5.63 billion the year before. During that period, education expenses rose by $29.6 million.

• Taxes produced 74.5 percent of the county’s total revenue in FY 2022, amounting to approximately $4.19 billion. Broken down by source, that comes to $3.05 billion in real property taxes, $475 million in personal property taxes, $294 million in local sales taxes, and $363 million in other taxes.

• The vast majority of expenditures, $2.365 billion, goes to education, making up 45.9 percent of the county budget.

• Other expenditure categories are public safety (15.5 percent), health and welfare (15 percent), community development (8.6 percent), general government and judicial administration (5 percent), public works (4.3 percent), parks and recreation (3.8 percent), and interest on long-term debt (1.9 percent).