The Northern Shenandoah Valley is characterized by a nicely balanced, diverse landscape combining natural beauty, agriculture, rural towns, and small cities. The cities and towns have one or more functions based on agricultural supply, manufacturing, college, or resort specializations.
The economic ties of the Northern Valley to its regional continuation northward through West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania are now weak, due to the eastward pull of the Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond markets. Yet the historical ties of the Northern Valley to the larger Appalachian Valley region have indelibly shaped its culture and landscape. The northern portion of the Shenandoah Valley was settled initially by German and Scotch-Irish pioneers who traveled through the Valley southward from Pennsylvania.
The main economic base of the Northern Valley is agriculture, a specialization expressed most fully in Rockingham and Augusta counties. Rockingham County is the leading county in the state in terms of the sales value of agricultural products, more than three times that of Augusta, the second ranked county.
Livestock is the region's agricultural mainstay. Pigs, beef and dairy cattle, sheep, and poultry are raised. Alfalfa and grain for livestock are major crops, and the northern counties of the region, especially Frederick and Clarke, also specialize in apples and apple products. Unlike the Southern Valley portion of Southwest Virginia, farming is largely a full-time operation; and unlike Southside, investment in farm buildings and machinery is high.
Manufacturing, the second most important activity of the region, is present in all of the cities of the Northern Valley; but the largest concentrations of manufacturing employment are found in the cities of Waynesboro and Winchester, and Rockingham County, each of which has more than 5,000 workers. Electrical machinery, apparel, and food processing are the region's manufacturing specialties.
Per capita income is slightly below the state average in the Northern Valley, while population growth has been slightly above average. The three largest cities of the region are Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Winchester; the counties surrounding these cities (Rockingham, Augusta, and Frederick, respectively) experienced the majority of the Northern Valley's population growth between 1980 and 1988.