Photo: Pejcharat · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Hampton (6.3%) is higher than in 77% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 4.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 11.4 in Norfolk. For jobs and income Hampton is better than 43% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (A−). Working from home is the commute for 10% of workers (Virginia 18%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Hampton, in brief
A lot of Hampton works one town over
38% of working residents work in a town that borders Hampton: Newport News (27%), Norfolk (9%) and Portsmouth (2%). Next door ↓
Hampton trades workers with the towns around it
Hampton has about as many jobs (45,482) as working residents (52,140), but they are mostly different people: 39,219 residents leave for work each day while 32,561 people come in. Only 28% of the jobs in Hampton are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
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.
Why Hampton gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Hampton’s grade up (ahead of 80% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hampton could be anywhere from C+ to B−.
Hampton on a workday afternoon
On a workday 39,219 residents head out to work, 12,921 work right here, and 32,561 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 (0.87 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.
27% of working residents work in Newport News
Where Hampton clocks in
27% of workers
9% of workers
5% 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.
What the 45,482 jobs in Hampton are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hampton, 2013 → 2023: 50,046 → 45,482. 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 Hampton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 23 minutes from Hampton
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hampton workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 59,998 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.
How far it is to work from Hampton
About 18% 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.
Hampton is easy on foot, hard by bus
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.5% of 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 66,940 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 89% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 22% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 4.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 82% 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). 7.6% of Hampton households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Hampton’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Hampton is 189th of 268 U.S. towns of 96,000 to 185,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 2 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Fishers IN | 104,812 | $130K | 4.0% | 2.8% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Alexandria VA | 160,662 | $120K | 7.9% | 3.3% | 15% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 116 | Suffolk VA | 104,699 | $93K | 9.4% | 5.0% | 22% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | El Monte CA | 105,075 | $68K | 17.4% | 6.3% | 9% | C+ |
| 188 | Wilmington NC | 126,809 | $67K | 16.0% | 4.3% | 49% | C+ |
| 189 | Hampton VA | 137,315 | $70K | 12.7% | 6.3% | 25% | C+ |
| 190 | Salem OR | 181,779 | $75K | 14.4% | 5.8% | 49% | C+ |
| 191 | East Los Angeles CA | 111,647 | $69K | 17.3% | 6.8% | 5% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 196 | Newport News VA | 183,230 | $70K | 14.5% | 5.8% | 40% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 268 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Hampton, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
Bordering towns draw 38% of Hampton’s workers
The biggest share goes to Newport News (27%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hampton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hampton | – | C+ | A− | 23 min | $69,621 |
| Newport News | 27% | C+ | A | 23 min | $69,634 |
| Poquoson | under 1% | A | C− | 27 min | $120,972 |
| Bethel Manor | under 1% | B+ | C− | 21 min | $77,294 |
| Norfolk | 9% | C+ | A+ | 23 min | $66,109 |
| Portsmouth | 2% | C | A | 24 min | $60,491 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Hampton’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Hampton: questions
What is the median household income in Hampton?
$69,621 (±$2,291) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hampton?
12.7%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hampton?
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 Hampton work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Newport News (27%, 12 mi), Norfolk (9%, 9 mi), Virginia Beach (5%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hampton walkable?
Hampton is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hampton without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 22% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hampton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hampton
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.