William Gunnell House · Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Few U.S. towns have household incomes as high as Great Falls’
Below the poverty line: 2.2% of residents, next to 9.9% for Virginia as a whole. Measured by household income, Great Falls is among the highest-earning towns in the country. The two grades for Great Falls are A+ for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Great Falls: the figures worth knowing
Home offices are common in Great Falls
44% of Great Falls workers work from home, against 18% across Virginia. Time on the road ↓
Four in five Great Falls workers earn over $40,000 a year
81% of Great Falls’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
Great Falls workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 34 minutes each way, against 27 across Virginia. Over a year that’s about 261 hours of commuting, 54 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
Great Falls’ Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Great Falls is better than 98% of U.S. towns, #24 of 253 in Virginia. Household income is its strongest input ($250,000+, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.1%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
The Census reports Great Falls’ median household income as $250,000+, the top of its scale; the grade ranks it as tied with the 111 other graded places at that ceiling.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Great Falls could be anywhere from A to A+.
About 34 minutes to work from Great Falls
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Great Falls workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,945 commuters (the 44% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
2,938 jobs are based in Great Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Great Falls, 2013 → 2023: 2,572 → 2,938. 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 Great Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Great Falls quiets down on a workday
On a workday 6,107 residents head out to work, 419 work right here, and 2,519 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Great Falls on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
0.45 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.
13% of working residents work in Washington
Where Great Falls clocks in
13% of workers
11% 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 Great Falls to work
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.
Most trips from Great Falls start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Great Falls is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns, #162 of 253 in Virginia. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% 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 7,070 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 1.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 62% 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). 1.7% of Great Falls households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Great Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
52nd of 2,109: where Great Falls ranks among U.S. towns of 11,000 to 21,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Wakefield VA | 11,930 | $238K | 1.8% | 2.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Franconia VA | 18,335 | $152K | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | South Fayette Township PA | 18,648 | $124K | 3.6% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 51 | Fort Hunt VA | 16,700 | $216K | 2.2% | 3.2% | 3% | A+ |
| 52 | Great Falls VA | 15,228 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.1% | 6% | A+ |
| 53 | Jefferson Township OH | 16,039 | $131K | 3.7% | 2.0% | 1% | A+ |
| 54 | Whitefish Bay WI | 14,489 | $157K | 3.7% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,109 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Great Falls, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
Next door to Great Falls
The biggest share goes to McLean (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Great Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Falls | – | A+ | B | 34 min | $250,000+ |
| McLean | 2% | A+ | A | 28 min | $250,000+ |
| Great Falls Crossing | under 2% | A+ | B− | 34 min | $250,000+ |
| Wolf Trap | under 2% | A+ | A− | 30 min | $250,000+ |
| Dranesville | under 2% | A+ | A− | 29 min | $214,688 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Great Falls’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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.
- A ceiling on income. The Census stops at $250,000+, so the true median may be higher.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Great Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Great Falls?
$250,000+ (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Great Falls?
2.2%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Great Falls?
34 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 44% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Great Falls work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Washington (13%, 17 mi), Tysons (11%, 7 mi), Reston (8%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Great Falls walkable?
Great Falls is more walkable than 63% 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 Great Falls without a car?
4% 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 Great Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Great Falls
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.