Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Coeburn are lower than in 81% of U.S. towns
1% of workers work from home (Virginia 18%). 19.1% of residents are in poverty, where Virginia as a whole has 9.9%. For jobs and income Coeburn is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Coeburn, in a few figures
Few Coeburn workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 18% across Virginia. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Coeburn are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 27 across Virginia. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Coeburn workers earn over $40,000 a year
42% of Coeburn’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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 551 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Coeburn
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Coeburn’s grade.
Unemployment (14.6%) is left out: Coeburn’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, Coeburn could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The daily trip from Coeburn: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Coeburn workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 510 commuters (the 1% 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 Coeburn: 636 jobs
636 jobs are based in Coeburn.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Coeburn, 2013 → 2023: 778 → 636. 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 Coeburn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Coeburn on a workday
On a workday 506 residents head out to work, 45 work right here, and 591 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 (1.15 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.
19% of working residents work in Wise
Where Coeburn clocks in
19% of workers
11% 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.
The distance from Coeburn to work
About 16% 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.
In Coeburn, most people drive to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 516 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). 1.9% of Coeburn households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Coeburn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Coeburn is 5,100th of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | Mason Neck VA | 2,039 | $168K | 1.1% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 93 | Bull Run Mountain Estates VA | 1,827 | $250K | 1.1% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,098 | Elm City NC | 1,250 | $36K | 33.7% | 8.8% | 3% | D |
| 5,099 | Grapeland TX | 1,475 | $40K | 13.1% | 10.7% | 17% | D |
| 5,100 | Coeburn VA | 1,535 | $55K | 19.1% | 14.6% | 8% | D |
| 5,101 | Maple Valley Township MI | 1,161 | $61K | 20.5% | 2.8% | 3% | D |
| 5,102 | North Plains Township MI | 1,200 | $61K | 22.8% | 8.6% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Coeburn, 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 Coeburn: questions
What is the median household income in Coeburn?
$55,104 (±$13,869) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Coeburn?
19.1%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Coeburn?
19 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Coeburn work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wise (19%, 6 mi), Norton (11%, 9 mi), Big Stone Gap (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Coeburn walkable?
Coeburn is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Coeburn without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Coeburn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Coeburn
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.