Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHousehold incomes in Brookneal are lower than in 93% of U.S. towns
3% of workers have no commute at all, against 18% across Virginia. 24.8% of residents are in poverty, where Virginia as a whole has 9.9%. For jobs and income Brookneal is near the bottom of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Brookneal, in a few figures
Brookneal’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Brookneal is Lynchburg, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 20% of working residents (75) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Brookneal workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 18% across Virginia. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
42% of the jobs in Brookneal are in trade, transport and utilities, against 20% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
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 382 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Brookneal’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Brookneal is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Brookneal’s grade.
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Brookneal’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Brookneal could be anywhere from D− to D.
Near or far: the trip to work from Brookneal
About 25% 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.
About 24 minutes each way, quicker than most of Virginia
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brookneal workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 461 commuters (the 3% 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.
What work there is in Brookneal: 456 jobs
456 jobs are based in Brookneal.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brookneal, 2013 → 2023: 538 → 456. 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 Brookneal’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Brookneal, and who commutes in
On a workday 339 residents head out to work, 43 work right here, and 413 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 (1.19 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.
20% of working residents work in Lynchburg
Where Brookneal clocks in
8% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Brookneal
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 477 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). 15.7% of Brookneal households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brookneal’s commuters take a bus or train.
Brookneal and other U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Occoquan VA | 1,078 | $134K | 2.1% | 5.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 140 | Kincora VA | 1,008 | $134K | 8.8% | 6.3% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,663 | Rolling Fork MS | 1,387 | $46K | 24.5% | 6.9% | 24% | D− |
| 3,664 | Dexter NM | 1,049 | $44K | 41.3% | 10.7% | 10% | D− |
| 3,665 | Brookneal VA | 1,083 | $45K | 24.8% | 4.2% | 11% | D− |
| 3,666 | Sistersville WV | 1,319 | $46K | 40.8% | 12.6% | 6% | D− |
| 3,667 | Wayne WV | 1,383 | $27K | 25.8% | 5.5% | 10% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Brookneal, 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 Brookneal: questions
What is the median household income in Brookneal?
$44,850 (±$21,758) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brookneal?
24.8%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brookneal?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brookneal work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lynchburg (20%, 28 mi), Rustburg (8%, 18 mi), Altavista (3%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brookneal walkable?
Brookneal is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brookneal without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brookneal, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brookneal
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.