Photo: Dadadata · Public domainWhere Cape Charles earns its living
About one in five stay in Cape Charles for work; outside it, Virginia Beach is the main destination (7%, 33 miles). The two grades for Cape Charles are C− for jobs and income and A for walkability. A typical one-way commute from Cape Charles lasts 18 minutes (Virginia 27, U.S. 26).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cape Charles at work: what stands out
Jobs in Cape Charles have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Cape Charles went from 305 in 2013 to 660 in 2023, +116%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Cape Charles are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 27 across Virginia. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% 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 549 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Where Cape Charles’ Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Cape Charles is better than 21% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Cape Charles’ grade up ($73,750, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Cape Charles’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, Cape Charles could be anywhere from D− to B−.
A place that makes things: 32% of Cape Charles’ jobs are in goods
660 jobs are based in Cape Charles.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cape Charles, 2013 → 2023: 305 → 660. 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 Cape Charles’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 18 minutes to work from Cape Charles
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cape Charles workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 463 commuters (the 16% 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 Cape Charles’ workers travel
About 30% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Cape Charles
On a workday 448 residents head out to work, 101 work right here, and 559 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 (1.20 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.
Commuting out of Cape Charles: the destinations
Where Cape Charles clocks in
7% of workers
5% 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.
Cape Charles is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cape Charles is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 18.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 551 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). 9.8% of Cape Charles households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 6% of Cape Charles’ commuters take a bus or train.
Cape Charles next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800: 3,656th of 5,400 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% | 1% | 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% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Haymarket VA | 1,602 | $174K | 3.2% | 4.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,654 | La Monte MO | 1,018 | $66K | 16.3% | 4.5% | <1% | C− |
| 3,655 | Catawissa PA | 1,539 | $52K | 16.4% | 6.2% | 1% | C− |
| 3,656 | Cape Charles VA | 1,314 | $74K | 13.2% | 2.9% | 18% | C− |
| 3,657 | Oak Grove Township IN | 1,597 | $55K | 12.0% | 4.6% | 2% | C− |
| 3,658 | Richmond Township PA | 1,329 | $69K | 15.0% | 3.6% | 3% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Cape Charles, 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 Cape Charles: questions
What is the median household income in Cape Charles?
$73,750 (±$34,865) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cape Charles?
13.2%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cape Charles?
18 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cape Charles work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Virginia Beach (7%, 33 mi), Norfolk (5%, 26 mi), Exmore (3%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cape Charles walkable?
Cape Charles is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 18% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cape Charles without a car?
6% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cape Charles, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cape Charles
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.