Photo: Bill McChesney from Charlottesville, VA · CC BY 2.0Dayton draws 1,970 commuters a day, with 2.7 jobs for every working resident
2,010 jobs are based in Dayton for 753 working residents. For jobs and income Dayton is better than 76% of U.S. towns (A−); for walkability it is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (D). Home is the office for 8% of workers, against 18% across Virginia.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Dayton stands out on work
Dayton is where the jobs are
Dayton has 2,010 jobs, 2.7 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,000 people are in town, 70% more than the 1,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
Dayton makes and builds things
82% of the jobs based in Dayton are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Dayton residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 21%. The jobs ↓
Jobs in Dayton have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Dayton went from 352 in 2013 to 2,010 in 2023, +471%. 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 753 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Dayton
The poverty rate is its strongest input (4.7%, U.S. 12.5%); household income ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns ($75,769, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dayton could be anywhere from C+ to A+.
The workday shuffle in and out of Dayton
On a workday 713 residents head out to work and 40 work right here.
About 3,000 people are in Dayton on a workday afternoon, 70% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Goods, not services: 82% of the jobs in Dayton
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dayton, 2013 → 2023: 352 → 2,010. 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 Dayton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Dayton
Where Dayton clocks in
35% of workers
5% 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.
How long Dayton spends getting to work: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dayton workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,047 commuters (the 8% 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 many miles Dayton commutes
About 22% 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 Dayton, the car does most of the work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,134 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 Dayton households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dayton’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Dayton ranks: 808th of 5,343 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 14 | Sully Square VA | 2,394 | $176K | 0.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Mason Neck VA | 2,039 | $168K | 1.1% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 806 | Kalida OH | 1,481 | $88K | 1.5% | 0.0% | 15% | A− |
| 807 | Stephens City VA | 2,207 | $103K | 4.3% | 4.1% | 2% | A− |
| 808 | Dayton VA | 1,791 | $76K | 4.7% | 2.6% | 5% | A− |
| 809 | Union Township NE | 2,089 | $110K | 0.9% | 7.1% | 4% | A− |
| 810 | Cheswick PA | 1,594 | $75K | 6.8% | 8.9% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | 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 Dayton, 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 Dayton: questions
What is the median household income in Dayton?
$75,769 (±$32,450) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dayton?
4.7%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dayton?
16 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dayton work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Harrisonburg (35%, 4 mi), Bridgewater (5%, 2 mi), Richmond (2%, 101 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dayton walkable?
Dayton is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dayton 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 Dayton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dayton
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.