Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHouseholds in Gretna earn less than those in 98% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 42.2% of residents, against 9.9% across Virginia. Jobs and income earn Gretna D−; getting around on foot earns it C−. About one in ten work in Gretna itself; outside it, Chatham draws the most (14%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Gretna, in a few figures
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Gretna
On income, poverty and job access, Gretna is better than 3% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Gretna’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Gretna’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Gretna stays D−.
A commute of about 21 minutes in Gretna
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gretna workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 363 commuters (the 19% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Gretna
On a workday 431 residents head out to work, 45 work right here, and 508 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 (1.16 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.
Out of Gretna to work: where people go
Where Gretna clocks in
14% of workers
9% of workers
6% 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.
Inside Gretna’s 553 jobs
553 jobs are based in Gretna.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gretna, 2013 → 2023: 438 → 553. 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 Gretna’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Gretna’s commute, mile by mile
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 Gretna, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gretna is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 5.7% across Virginia.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 448 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). 8.6% of Gretna households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gretna’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700, and where Gretna sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Occoquan VA | 1,078 | $134K | 2.1% | 5.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Haymarket VA | 1,602 | $174K | 3.2% | 4.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,587 | Shamrock TX | 1,692 | $47K | 19.3% | 5.7% | 31% | D− |
| 4,588 | Corrigan TX | 1,358 | $38K | 30.6% | 16.7% | 19% | D− |
| 4,589 | Gretna VA | 1,280 | $34K | 42.2% | 3.8% | 9% | D− |
| 4,590 | Concord Township OH | 1,390 | $45K | 20.9% | 0.0% | 1% | D− |
| 4,591 | Vienna Bend LA | 1,502 | $29K | 30.1% | 5.3% | <1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Gretna, 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 Gretna: questions
What is the median household income in Gretna?
$33,698 (±$6,942) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gretna?
42.2%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gretna?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gretna work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chatham (14%, 10 mi), Danville (9%, 26 mi), Altavista (6%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gretna walkable?
Gretna is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gretna without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gretna, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gretna
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.