Photo: Skye Marthaler · CC BY-SA 3.0There are 4.7 jobs in Bland for every working resident, and 565 people commute in
The trip to work takes 18 minutes on average, next to 27 for Virginia and 26 for the U.S. Bland has 576 jobs for 123 working residents. About one in ten work in Bland itself; outside it, Rocky Gap draws the most (11%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bland on a workday afternoon
On a workday 112 residents head out to work and 11 work right here.
About 1,000 people are in Bland on a workday afternoon, 80% more than live here.
4.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where Bland’s workers come from
Where Bland clocks in
8% of workers
7% 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.
Making and building: 88% of jobs based in Bland
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bland, 2013 → 2023: 628 → 576. 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 Bland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Bland: about 18 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bland workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 233 commuters (the 12% 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 it is to work from Bland
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.
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 Bland: questions
What is the median household income in Bland?
$62,404 (±$48,631) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bland?
13.8%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bland?
18 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bland work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rocky Gap (11%, 10 mi), Bastian (8%, 4 mi), Wytheville (7%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Bland without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bland
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.