Historic Roots

Originally part of the area surveyed for the nation’s capital, the portion of the District on the west bank of the Potomac River was returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia by the U.S. Congress in 1846. This area was known as Alexandria City and Alexandria County until 1920, when the county portion was renamed Arlington County. It is also home to one of the region’s oldest buildings: the circa 1740 Ball-Sellers House.

Transportation

Welcoming more than 20 million passengers each year, Reagan National Airport (DCA) is in Arlington’s Crystal City neighborhood. The international airport offers nonstop flights to nearly 100 destinations on 24 airlines. Once you’re on the ground, the county is well connected by public transportation with 11 Metrorail stations, 16 bus routes, 109 Capital Bikeshare stations, and nearly 100 miles of biking and walking trails.

Hotels

Arlington has 39 hotels in a variety of price points and configurations. The county has nearly 10,000 sleeping rooms and more than 326,000 square feet of meeting space.

Business Environment

Many companies and prominent organizations are based in Arlington, including Amazon’s HQ2, Nestle USA, Boeing, Politico, Deloitte, Gartner, PBS and more. With 41.9 million square feet of rentable building area, Arlington has more private office space than the downtowns of Los Angeles, Denver, and Atlanta, and the Central Business Districts of Dallas and Seattle. Arlington continues to grow.

Community Data & Demographics

In 2023, Arlington’s population reached 237,300 people. With 42 million square feet of rentable building area, Arlington has more private office space than the Central Business Districts of Los Angeles, Charlotte, Dallas and Seattle, and Downtown Atlanta (Source: JLL). Arlington is also a highly diverse and educated area. Nationwide, Arlington tops the list of counties with the highest percentage of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The diversity of the county is reflected in Arlington Public Schools, whose students speak 88 languages and hail from 149 countries.