James City Historic District · Photo: Graham, William E. · Public domainBrightwood has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
The two grades for Brightwood are C for jobs and income and C for walkability. Employers in Brightwood report 23 jobs, against 431 working residents. Hardly any stay in Brightwood for work; outside it, Culpeper is the main destination (12%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Brightwood apart
Brightwood is a place people come home to
There are 23 jobs based in Brightwood, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Brightwood has about 920 people in it, 31% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Brightwood workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 33 minutes each way, against 27 across Virginia. Over a year that’s about 253 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 431 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Brightwood’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Brightwood is better than 34% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Brightwood’s grade up (10.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.6%) is left out: Brightwood’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, Brightwood could be anywhere from D to A−.
The daily flow of workers through Brightwood
On a workday 428 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 20 people come in from elsewhere.
About 920 people are in Brightwood on a workday afternoon, 31% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
A commute of about 33 minutes in Brightwood
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brightwood workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 538 commuters (the 13% 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.
Where Brightwood goes to work
Where Brightwood clocks in
12% 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.
The kinds of work in Brightwood
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brightwood, 2014 → 2024: 43 → 23. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Brightwood’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Brightwood
About 26% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Brightwood, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brightwood is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 3.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 619 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). 0.0% of Brightwood households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Brightwood’s commuters take a bus or train.
Brightwood is 2,838th of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800 on jobs and income
| # | 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Occoquan VA | 1,078 | $134K | 2.1% | 5.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Haymarket VA | 1,602 | $174K | 3.2% | 4.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,836 | Fort Clark Springs TX | 1,048 | $71K | 6.6% | 0.0% | <1% | C |
| 2,837 | Wattsville VA | 1,439 | $69K | 8.1% | 8.8% | 2% | C |
| 2,838 | Brightwood VA | 1,325 | $71K | 10.0% | 5.6% | 1% | C |
| 2,839 | Andrews IN | 1,062 | $50K | 7.8% | 6.7% | <1% | C |
| 2,840 | Parkston SD | 1,540 | $70K | 7.5% | 3.3% | 33% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Brightwood, 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 2024, 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 Brightwood: questions
What is the median household income in Brightwood?
$70,625 (±$35,878) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brightwood?
10.0%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brightwood?
33 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brightwood work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Culpeper (12%, 11 mi), Orange (3%, 12 mi), Warrenton (2%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Brightwood walkable?
Brightwood is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 3.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brightwood without a car?
3% 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 Brightwood, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brightwood
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.