Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHousehold incomes in Ferrum are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 37.1% of residents (Virginia 9.9%). For jobs and income Ferrum is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (B). Only 7% stay in Ferrum for work; outside it, Rocky Mount is the main destination (26%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Ferrum
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Ferrum
Job access by car holds Ferrum’s grade up (ahead of 25% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (7.3%) is left out: Ferrum’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, Ferrum could be anywhere from D− to C.
In Ferrum, services account for most jobs
337 jobs are based in Ferrum.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ferrum, 2013 → 2023: 450 → 337. 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 Ferrum’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Ferrum
On a workday 601 residents head out to work, 46 work right here, and 291 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Ferrum on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer than live here.
0.52 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The places Ferrum commutes to
Where Ferrum clocks in
26% of workers
9% 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.
Each way, about 24 minutes from Ferrum
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ferrum workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 585 commuters (the 23% 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 Ferrum commutes
About 19% 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.
For most of Ferrum, work means a drive
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 25.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 4.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 761 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 50% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.5% of Ferrum households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Ferrum’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400, and where Ferrum sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Mason Neck VA | 2,039 | $168K | 1.1% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,752 | Osage Township MO | 1,660 | $52K | 25.5% | 6.3% | 13% | D− |
| 5,753 | Minorca LA | 1,430 | $36K | 31.7% | 6.6% | 7% | D− |
| 5,754 | Ferrum VA | 1,774 | $40K | 37.1% | 7.3% | 7% | D− |
| 5,755 | Ashland AL | 1,952 | $42K | 25.0% | 0.0% | 31% | D− |
| 5,756 | Anthony KS | 2,034 | $51K | 21.1% | 3.9% | 40% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | 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 Ferrum, 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 Ferrum: questions
What is the median household income in Ferrum?
$40,435 (±$19,996) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ferrum?
37.1%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ferrum?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ferrum work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rocky Mount (26%, 8 mi), Roanoke (9%, 24 mi), Martinsville (2%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ferrum walkable?
Ferrum is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 4.3 out of 20, and 25% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ferrum without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ferrum, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ferrum
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.