Photo: Corvokarasu at English Wikipedia · Public domainEmporia has lower household incomes than 86% of U.S. towns
15.8% of residents live below the poverty line, against 9.9% across Virginia. The two grades for Emporia are C for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Home is the office for 10% of workers, next to 18% for Virginia as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Emporia apart on work
No single place dominates Emporia’s commute
The biggest draw, Richmond, gets only 4% of working residents, and 57% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Emporia residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Emporia is where the jobs are
Emporia has 4,076 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
39% 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Emporia
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Emporia is better than 29% of U.S. towns, #217 of 253 in Virginia. Unemployment holds Emporia’s grade up (2.9%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($51,899, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Emporia could be anywhere from D to B−.
Where Emporia’s workforce comes from
Where Emporia clocks in
4% of workers
2% 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.
Who commutes out of Emporia, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,791 residents head out to work, 693 work right here, and 3,383 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,000 people are in Emporia on a workday afternoon, 29% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Emporia
About 39% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
What Emporia’s employers do
4,076 jobs are based in Emporia.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Emporia, 2014 → 2024: 3,999 → 4,076. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Emporia’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Emporia: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Emporia workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,039 commuters (the 10% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Emporia
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Emporia is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns, #116 of 253 in Virginia. Both inputs place Emporia near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,264 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). 12.5% of Emporia households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Emporia’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Emporia is 2,685th of 3,612 U.S. towns of 3,800 to 7,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 7 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | South Run VA | 6,600 | $250K | 2.1% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,683 | Rittman OH | 6,120 | $60K | 14.0% | 8.2% | 11% | C |
| 2,684 | Slatington PA | 4,296 | $50K | 25.8% | 4.1% | 4% | C |
| 2,685 | Emporia VA | 5,447 | $52K | 15.8% | 2.9% | 28% | C |
| 2,686 | Prairie du Chien WI | 5,408 | $54K | 17.4% | 2.1% | 39% | C |
| 2,687 | Boonville NY | 4,411 | $68K | 11.8% | 4.6% | 22% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,612 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Emporia, 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 2024, 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 Emporia: questions
What is the median household income in Emporia?
$51,899 (±$7,831) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Emporia?
15.8%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Emporia?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Emporia work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Richmond (4%, 58 mi), Petersburg (2%, 36 mi), Newport News (2%, 62 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Emporia walkable?
Emporia is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Emporia without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Emporia, from the people who make the trip.
More of Emporia
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.