Southside, which includes planning districts 13, 14, and 19, is Virginia's poorest region. It is located mainly on the Piedmont and partly on the Coastal Plain of south central Virginia. Southside forms part of a larger region that includes much of adjacent north central North Carolina. This area, which has a large black population, is just outside the reach of the economic spillover effects from Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Lynchburg.
Low incomes, low educational attainment, high unemployment, and general lack of economic opportunity make this area one of exceptionally slow population growth (less than 1 percent). In income levels, of the poorest 15 of the state's 36 cities and counties measured by adjusted gross income on tax returns, 10 were located in Southside.
An important factor in the economic base of most of this region is general agriculture, with tobacco a particularly important product in the western half of the region. Southside's agriculture is characterized by a high rate of tenant farming, a large proportion of part-time farmers, a large number of farms operated by blacks, and relatively low capital investment in farm machinery and buildings.
Manufacturing is also important to the economy, but it is not well distributed throughout the region. Most manufacturing is concentrated in Halifax and Mecklenburg counties, adjacent to the Piedmont-Valley Industrial Zone, and in the cities of Petersburg and Hopewell, adjacent to the Richmond Region. Manufacturing is primarily of a low wage type, such as textiles, apparel, and forest products. Three Southside counties are included among the six Virginia counties that produce the most hardwood timber, and three Southside counties are among the six highest in softwood timber production as well.
Petersburg and Hopewell are exceptions to the manufacturing pattern in Southside. The specialties of these cities are cigarette and chemical production, both of which pay higher wages than other Southside industries. Petersburg and Hopewell could, in fact be considered part of the Richmond Region, in which case the importance of agriculture and forestry to southside would be much more striking. Thus, in a fashion similar to the Chesapeake Fringe, the physical environment and its primary products, overall, greatly influence the economic character of Southside.