According to the 2000 Census, the eight counties of the Eastern Panhandle had a combined population of 212,483 giving the region 11.75% of West Virginia's population. Berkeley County is the Panhandle's most populous county with 89,362 residents (2004). Berkeley also includes the Panhandle's largest city, Martinsburg, with a population of 15,635 (2004).
Population growth
County
2004 (estimate)
2000
1990
1980
1970! 1960
Berkeley
89,362
75,905
59,253
46,846
36,356
33,791
Grant
11,537
11,299
10,428
10,218
8,607
8,304
Hampshire
21,542
20,203
16,498
14,867
11,710
11,705
Hardy
13,209
12,669
10,977
10,051
8,855
9,308
Jefferson
47,663
42,190
35,926
30,311
21,280
18,665
Mineral
27,145
27,078
26,697
27,159
23,109
22,354
Morgan
15,810
14,943
12,128
10,696
8,547
8,376
Pendleton
7,897
8,196
8,054
7,935
7,031
8,093
TOTAL
234,165
212,483
179,961
158,083
125,495
120,596
Housing growth
The Eastern Panhandle is West Virginia's fastest growing region in terms of population and housing growth. In July 2005, the United States Census Bureau released a list of the top 100 counties according to housing growth. Berkeley County grew 3.95 percent, from 36,365 housing units in 2003 to 37,802 units in 2004. That growth rate was 86th in the nation among the 3,141 United States counties. Jefferson County was not far behind at 88th in the nation. It grew 3.94 percent from 19,381 housing units in 2003 to 20,144 units in 2004.
Largest cities
The majority of the Eastern Panhandle's growing residential developments are located outside of city and town boundaries and therefore not included in the city or town's official population.
*The Eastern Panhandle includes West Virginia's oldest chartered towns (1762) of Romney and Shepherdstown. The Panhandle also includes West Virginia's two oldest counties: Hampshire (1753) and Berkeley (1772). *The Eastern Panhandle also includes both West Virginia's highest and lowest elevations above sea level: Spruce Knob, 4,863 feet (1,482 m), in Pendleton and Harpers Ferry, 240 feet (73 m), in Jefferson on the Potomac River. *West Virginia's only natural lake, Trout Pond, is located in the Panhandle's Hardy County near Wardensville. *Berkeley, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, and Morgan Counties were forced to reluctantly join the new Unionist state of West Virginia in 1863 so that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad along the Potomac River would remain safely in Union hands. Shortly after West Virginia gained statehood, Mineral and Grant counties were created from Hampshire and Hardy in 1866. *As of September 2005, the Eastern Panhandle has 245 (27.07%) of West Virginia's 905 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Berkeley County has the most at 106 properties listed.
Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, and Pendleton Counties also belong to another geographical region of West Virginia known as the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia.
