Photo: Mojo Hand · CC BY-SA 4.0Jobs, pay and the trip to work in Bowling Green
Home is the office for 7% of workers, against 18% across Virginia. The two grades for Bowling Green are C+ for jobs and income and C for walkability. Only 4% work in Bowling Green itself; outside it, Fredericksburg draws the most (7%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Bowling Green apart on work
Bowling Green is where the jobs are
Bowling Green has 863 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. 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; with 543 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Bowling Green’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Bowling Green is better than 36% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Bowling Green’s grade up ($82,500, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (7.5%) is left out: Bowling Green’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Bowling Green could be anywhere from D to B+.
Who commutes out of Bowling Green, and who commutes in
On a workday 523 residents head out to work, 20 work right here, and 843 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Bowling Green on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
1.6 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 in the region Bowling Green works
About 31% 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.
Who travels to work in Bowling Green, and from where
Where Bowling Green clocks in
7% of workers
4% 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.
In Bowling Green, services account for most jobs
863 jobs are based in Bowling Green.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bowling Green, 2013 → 2023: 670 → 863. 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 Bowling Green’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 31 minutes to work from Bowling Green
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bowling Green workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 524 commuters (the 7% 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 Bowling Green gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bowling Green is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Bowling Green near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 561 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.4% of Bowling Green households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bowling Green’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Bowling Green is 2,386th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Occoquan VA | 1,078 | $134K | 2.1% | 5.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Haymarket VA | 1,602 | $174K | 3.2% | 4.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,384 | Prairie Lake WI | 1,670 | $71K | 9.2% | 1.0% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,385 | Neoga IL | 1,369 | $73K | 11.8% | 3.2% | 6% | C+ |
| 2,386 | Bowling Green VA | 1,284 | $83K | 14.6% | 7.5% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,387 | Wayne Township PA | 1,399 | $75K | 9.4% | 6.7% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,388 | Leavittsburg OH | 1,283 | $54K | 13.2% | 1.5% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Bowling Green, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
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 Bowling Green: questions
What is the median household income in Bowling Green?
$82,500 (±$20,288) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bowling Green?
14.6%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bowling Green?
31 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bowling Green work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fredericksburg (7%, 19 mi), Richmond (4%, 37 mi), Arlington (3%, 59 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bowling Green walkable?
Bowling Green is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bowling Green without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bowling Green, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bowling Green
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.