Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Elkton’s household incomes are lower than in 71% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income C+: better than 36% of U.S. towns on income, poverty, unemployment and job access · #203 of 253 in Virginia.
Walkability B+: more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns · #132 of 253 in Virginia.
Working residents average 26 minutes each way (Virginia 27, U.S. 26). About one in ten work in Elkton; the top destination outside it is Harrisonburg (23%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Elkton, in brief
Jobs in Elkton have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Elkton went from 691 in 2013 to 1,462 in 2023, +112%. The jobs ↓
Elkton trades workers with the towns around it
Elkton has about as many jobs (1,462) as working residents (1,562), but they are mostly different people: 1,431 residents leave for work each day while 1,331 people come in. Only 9% of the jobs in Elkton are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Elkton makes and builds things
53% of the jobs based in Elkton are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Elkton residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 22%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What’s behind Elkton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Elkton is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #203 of 253 in Virginia. The poverty rate holds Elkton’s grade up (9.9%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($62,031, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Elkton could be anywhere from D to A−.
Elkton makes things: 53% of its jobs are in goods
1,462 jobs are based in Elkton. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Elkton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Elkton, 2013 → 2023: 691 → 1,462. 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 1,431 residents head out to work, 131 work right here, and 1,331 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 (0.94 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.
23% of working residents work in Harrisonburg
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Elkton clocks in
23% 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.
About 26 minutes each way, about the VA average
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Elkton workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,459 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Virginia: 83% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Elkton commutes less than 15 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
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.
Most trips from Elkton start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Elkton is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #132 of 253 in Virginia. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,543 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). 6.4% of Elkton households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Elkton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Elkton is 2,918th of 4,562 U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,200 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Elkton, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Sully Square VA | 2,394 | $176K | 0.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | One Loudoun VA | 3,309 | $241K | 0.9% | 0.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Oak Grove VA | 2,408 | $174K | 0.6% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,916 | Shannondale WV | 3,465 | $80K | 13.3% | 5.6% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,917 | Echols County GA | 3,685 | $59K | 14.2% | 1.7% | 18% | C+ |
| 2,918 | Elkton VA | 3,136 | $62K | 9.9% | 4.3% | 8% | C+ |
| 2,919 | Pleasant Township IN | 2,387 | $73K | 7.7% | 6.4% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,920 | Silver Springs FL | 2,712 | $32K | 29.8% | 0.0% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,562 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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.
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 Elkton: questions
What is the median household income in Elkton?
$62,031 (±$15,993) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Elkton?
9.9%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Elkton?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Elkton work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Harrisonburg (23%, 14 mi), Massanutten (5%, 6 mi), Charlottesville (2%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Elkton walkable?
Elkton is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Elkton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Elkton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Elkton
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.