Photo: Orygun · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Altavista has 2.2 jobs per working resident, and 2,807 people come in to work
Jobs and income earn Altavista C−; getting around on foot earns it C. Altavista has 3,066 jobs; 1,389 of its residents have a job. Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Altavista, in brief
Altavista is where the jobs are
Altavista has 3,066 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 5,000 people are in town, 50% more than the 3,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
Altavista makes and builds things
41% of the jobs based in Altavista are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Altavista residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 25%. The jobs ↓
The biggest group of Altavista’s workers comes from Lynchburg
175 of the people who work in Altavista live in Lynchburg, 20 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Altavista’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Altavista is better than 16% of U.S. towns, #242 of 253 in Virginia. The poverty rate holds Altavista’s grade up (11.9%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down (7.9%, U.S. 5.2%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Altavista could be anywhere from D to B+.
Altavista by day and by night
On a workday 1,130 residents head out to work and 259 work right here.
About 5,000 people are in Altavista on a workday afternoon, 50% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Making and building: 41% of jobs based in Altavista
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Altavista, 2013 → 2023: 3,199 → 3,066. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Altavista’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Altavista’s workforce comes from
Where Altavista clocks in
5% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
About 23 minutes to work from Altavista
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Altavista workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,456 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Virginia: 83% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far Altavista goes to work
About 20% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Driving is how Altavista gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Altavista is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns, #220 of 253 in Virginia. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 5.7% across Virginia.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,587 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.6% of Altavista households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Altavista’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Altavista ranks: 3,875th of 4,593 U.S. towns of 2,300 to 4,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Sully Square VA | 2,394 | $176K | 0.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | One Loudoun VA | 3,309 | $241K | 0.9% | 0.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Oak Grove VA | 2,408 | $174K | 0.6% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,873 | Baldwyn MS | 3,104 | $44K | 21.8% | 5.0% | 9% | C− |
| 3,874 | Portage PA | 2,344 | $46K | 23.2% | 5.0% | 7% | C− |
| 3,875 | Altavista VA | 3,353 | $51K | 11.9% | 7.9% | 19% | C− |
| 3,876 | Parks Township PA | 2,388 | $67K | 24.3% | 9.0% | 6% | C− |
| 3,877 | Oak Trail Shores TX | 3,040 | $34K | 16.8% | 5.4% | <1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,593 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Altavista, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
How Altavista compares with the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Altavista’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Altavista: questions
What is the median household income in Altavista?
$51,349 (±$14,922) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Altavista?
11.9%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Altavista?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Altavista work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lynchburg (19%, 20 mi), Rustburg (5%, 14 mi), Forest (3%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Altavista walkable?
Altavista is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Altavista without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Altavista, from the people who make the trip.
More of Altavista
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.