Bon Air Historic District · Photo: User: Morgan Riley · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Bon Air earn more than those in 78% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Bon Air A; getting around on foot earns it B−. 6.7% of residents are in poverty, against 9.9% across Virginia. Only 4% stay in Bon Air for work; outside it, Richmond is the main destination (27%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bon Air and work: the main findings
Bon Air trades workers with the towns around it
Bon Air has about as many jobs (8,939) as working residents (8,124), but they are mostly different people: 7,760 residents leave for work each day while 8,575 people come in. Only 4% of the jobs in Bon Air are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Bon Air draws workers from far and wide
The 8,939 jobs in Bon Air are filled from a wide area. The ten biggest home towns of its workers supply 26%; the other 70% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Bon Air and Richmond trade workers both ways
Richmond is the top workplace for Bon Air residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Bon Air come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Bon Air
66% of Bon Air residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 45% of the jobs based in Bon Air pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 96% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Most Bon Air residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
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.
The four measures behind Bon Air’s grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bon Air is better than 85% of U.S. towns, #93 of 253 in Virginia. Job access by car is its strongest input (ahead of 87% of U.S. towns); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.5%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bon Air could be anywhere from B+ to A+.
Who leaves Bon Air for work, and who comes in
On a workday 7,760 residents head out to work, 364 work right here, and 8,575 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.10 per resident).
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 Bon Air’s working residents head each day
Where Bon Air clocks in
27% of workers
3% of workers
2% 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.
What Bon Air’s employers do
8,939 jobs are based in Bon Air.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bon Air, 2013 → 2023: 9,392 → 8,939. 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 Bon Air’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Bon Air
About 17% 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.
Time on the road from Bon Air: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bon Air workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,137 commuters (the 20% 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.
Driving is how Bon Air gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bon Air is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns, #188 of 253 in Virginia. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.9% of 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 8,886 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 22% 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 0.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 51% 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). 3.5% of Bon Air households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Bon Air’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Bon Air is 502nd of 1,999 U.S. towns of 12,000 to 23,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 4 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Rose Hill VA | 21,066 | $175K | 2.6% | 2.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 500 | DeWitt Township MI | 15,516 | $97K | 6.0% | 2.9% | 4% | A |
| 501 | Grand Rapids Township MI | 19,442 | $123K | 6.5% | 4.3% | 5% | A |
| 502 | Bon Air VA | 16,904 | $102K | 6.7% | 3.5% | 4% | A |
| 503 | Firestone CO | 20,129 | $120K | 4.6% | 4.2% | 4% | A |
| 504 | Clive IA | 19,861 | $132K | 7.3% | 4.0% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,999 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Bon Air, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
Next door is work for 29% of Bon Air
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bon Air workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bon Air | – | A | B− | 25 min | $101,879 |
| Richmond | 27% | C+ | A+ | 22 min | $64,587 |
| Manchester | 2% | B− | C+ | 22 min | $80,296 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Richmond. Darker towns draw more of Bon Air’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 Bon Air: questions
What is the median household income in Bon Air?
$101,879 (±$6,248) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bon Air?
6.7%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bon Air?
25 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bon Air work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Richmond (27%, 5 mi), Innsbrook (3%, 10 mi), Manchester (2%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bon Air walkable?
Bon Air is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bon Air without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bon Air, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bon Air
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.