Mathews County continues to lose population, according to estimates for 2011 released Monday by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.

Gloucester County, along with Virginia as a whole and all other localities on the Middle Peninsula, gained new residents in the 15-month period between the April 1, 2010 national census and the estimate date of July 1, 2011. In fact, Mathews was alone among neighboring localities in its population loss, according to the figures from the Cooper Center.

The Cooper Center prepares official estimates for Virginia’s counties and independent cities, a release said. "These estimates are used in funding formulae based on per capita allocations, in planning, in budgeting, in applications for grants, in approving and setting salaries for certain public officials, and in all manner of state agencies" from the Virginia Department of Transportation to the Virginia Department of Education, the release said.

According to the estimates, Mathews had 8,937 inhabitants as of July 1, 2011—down 41 from the census figure of 8,978, which itself showed a 2.5 percent decline from the 2000 count of 9,207 people.

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