A population decline continues in Mathews County, while growth is underway in Gloucester and surrounding localities, according to population estimates released by the state on Jan. 30.

The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia prepares the annual estimates, basing the figures on administrative records such as births, deaths, school enrollment, and residential housing construction, according to its website.

The estimated population in Gloucester County as of July 1, 2022, was 38,999 people, an increase of 88 people, or 0.2 percent, from the figure of 38,711 established by the 2020 U.S. Census.

Mathews had an estimated loss of 87 people, from 8,533 in 2020 to 8,446 just two years later: a drop of 1 percent, continuing a decline marked by a high-water mark of 9,142 residents in the 2000 census. The 2010 census counted 8,974 people in the county.

Surrounding localities experienced slight increases in terms of estimated population, as follows:

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