By Emily Keller-O'Donnell
June 26, 2023
Survey results from the U.S. Census showed a higher percentage of households in Virginia lacked home Internet access in November 2021 than at any other point in which data was collected over the last ten years. About 34 percent of households in Virginia said they did not have home Internet access, second only to Idaho (39 percent) and Nebraska (37 percent). On average, 23 percent of U.S. households said they did not have home Internet in the 2021 survey.
This comes as the number of data centers providing global Internet access have grown significantly across the region, making Northern Virginia the world leader in the prevalence of data center operations and construction, as measured by the number of data centers and their total power capacity.
The Current Population Survey (CPS) Computer and Internet Use Supplement is conducted every 1-2 years by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a division of the United States Department of Commerce. More than 197,000 respondents in Virginia said that their households lacked Internet.
The most common reasons stated by Virginia households for not having Internet at home was lack of need or interest (58 percent), and high expense (14 percent). These percentages were comparable to national averages of 56 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
The prominence of Virginia as the top global data center hotspot is quantified by both the number of total facilities, and their total power capacity in megawatts (MW). According to a list of the largest ten data center regions in the U.S. by Dgtl Infra, there are 275 data centers in Northern Virginia, with a total of 2,600 megawatts of multi-tenant commissioned power. This is followed by Northern California (Silicon Valley) with 160 data centers and 625 MW, and Dallas, Texas, with 150 data centers providing 650 MW.
The real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) provides a higher estimate of total MW for all of the data centers in Northern Virginia combined. According to the 2023 Data Centers Global Outlook report report, Northern Virginia has the largest market share of any region in the global data center industry, providing a total of 3,442 megawatts of commissioned power, which is more than the power capacity of the next three markets combined. Northern Virginia also leads the world in ongoing data center construction, as measured by total power capacity of facilities that are currently being built.
The continued growth of data centers across the state of Virginia has been met with waves of local resistance in areas such as Prince William County, Fairfax County, and Loudoun County, despite welcomed fiscal, tax and employment benefits. Residents and community advocates have expressed concerns about light and noise pollution, water and energy use, and an increase in regional saltwater in local waterways.
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