Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Grottoes gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $312K, 4.2 years of the Harrisonburg metro’s $75K median household income. It grades B+ overall, 134th among Virginia's 249 graded towns. On the plus side, 12% of its land is conserved. Grottoes’ trail density is 1.6 miles per square mile, where Virginia’s towns sit at 0.7 and U.S. towns at 0.4. On walkability, just 32 of Virginia’s 372 towns do worse. Grottoes's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 87% of U.S. towns.
Where Grottoes beats most towns.
Where Grottoes’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Virginia), ordered by how far Grottoes is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 381 in 1900, 2,899 in 2020. The archive holds 8 old photos and papers going back to 1941 and 4 maps from 1941 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Grottoes. Close and well known come first.
in town National ParkShenandoah National Park1.7M visitors a year
16 mi ParkwayBlue Ridge Parkway16.5M visitors a year
24 mi Stadium & arenaScott Stadium28 mi Scenic driveSkyline Drive
33 mi CaveLuray Caverns
23 mi Stadium & arenaJohn Paul Jones ArenaShenandoah National Park: Image copyright 2005 by user G. Edward Johnson (user Lorax) and released under t, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Blue Ridge Parkway: Ken Thomas, Public domain · Scott Stadium: Mak7912, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Skyline Drive: Image copyright 2005 by user G. Edward Johnson (user Lorax) and released under t, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Luray Caverns: Paulo Ordoveza from Washington, DC, CC BY 2.0 · John Paul Jones Arena: Bob Mical, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Grottoes, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 30, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in Grottoes.
Grottoes fares better on crime within Virginia than nationally and sends most of its workers to Harrisonburg and beyond, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Virginia (mostly inland flooding).
3.4 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Town Park, 49 acres with 1.3 miles of trail.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Town Park | 1.3 mi | 49 |
| 2. Grand Caverns Regional Park | 0.2 mi | 35 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Rockingham County Public Schools. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| South River ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 316 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within VA on state tests and graduation
Grottoes has 381 jobs for its 1,503 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave Grottoes for work: only 2% work in town. Since 2013, Grottoes has added 84 jobs, to 381 in 2023. At 24 minutes, Grottoes’ average trip to work is against 27 minutes in Virginia’s towns and 25 minutes across U.S. towns.
| Grottoes | Virginia towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 2.4% | 5% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 27 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $100,000 | $102,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
At 11.7 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 90% of Virginia’s graded towns.
The property crime rate in Grottoes is 4.6 per 1,000 residents.
| Grottoes | Virginia towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 4.6 per 1,000 residents | 14.6 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2 per 1,000 residents | 2.3 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Grottoes’ median rent is $840 a month. The typical Grottoes home is worth about $312,000, up 4.1% in a year, 24% below the Virginia typical home. 81% of Grottoes households own their home.
| Grottoes | Virginia towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $840 a month | $1,764 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 81% | 68% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 96% of Virginia towns; that rating is what its C for hazard risk is built on.
Only 10 of the 253 Virginia towns we compare have a higher FEMA risk score than Grottoes. Since 2003, 3 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Grottoes.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Grottoes has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 25° and about 19 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Against the 8,560 U.S. towns with household incomes like Grottoes’s, it is less healthy than 63%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Grottoes beats the Virginia average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 25% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Grottoes.
| Grottoes | Virginia towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 25% | 22% | 23% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 16% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 36% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 34% | 33% |
| What stands out | Grottoes | VA |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 15.7% | 11.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
4 within 15 miles of the center of Grottoes
About 6 of every 100 Grottoes residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Virginia.
Town in Virginia, United States
Grottoes is a town in Rockingham and Augusta counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. The population was 2,899 at the 2020 census. The town lies right on the border with Augusta County, and several commercial, residential, and recreational lots have portions within Augusta County. The town is part of the Harrisonburg metropolitan area, while the small portion that extends into Augusta County is part of the Staunton-Waynesboro micropolitan area. Grottoes is home to Grand Caverns which opened for tours in 1806, making it the oldest show cave in the United States.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Grottoes.
| Town | VA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grottoes | #134 | B+ | A | B+ | B− | B |
| Port Republic | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Port Republic isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Grottoes with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Grottoes grades B+ overall, better than 70% of U.S. towns and #134 of 249 in Virginia. It grades B for health, B+ for safety and B− for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.
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