Photo: Alma mater · CC BY-SA 3.0College students make up 30% of Harrisonburg’s residents
Harrisonburg grades C+ for jobs and income and A+ for walkability. 9% of workers have no commute at all (Virginia 18%). About one in three work in Harrisonburg itself; outside it, Bridgewater draws the most (4%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Harrisonburg stands out on work
Commutes from Harrisonburg are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 27 across Virginia. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
Harrisonburg is where the jobs are
Harrisonburg has 31,498 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Harrisonburg draws workers from far and wide
The 31,498 jobs in Harrisonburg are filled from a wide area. Harrisonburg’s own residents hold 22% and the ten next-biggest home towns 16%; the other 62% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
The figures behind Harrisonburg’s Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Harrisonburg is better than 44% of U.S. towns, #186 of 253 in Virginia. Job access by car holds Harrisonburg’s grade up (ahead of 66% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.3%, U.S. 11.9%).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (20% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 14.3%, against 25.7% for all residents. Unemployment (6.9%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($85,946), since student households pull the household median down ($62,254).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Harrisonburg could be anywhere from C to B−.
The trip to work from Harrisonburg: about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Harrisonburg workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 21,696 commuters (the 9% 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.
Who leaves Harrisonburg for work, and who comes in
On a workday 12,659 residents head out to work, 7,053 work right here, and 24,445 people come in from elsewhere.
About 63,000 people are in Harrisonburg on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Where Harrisonburg’s workers come from
Where Harrisonburg clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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.
What Harrisonburg’s employers do
31,498 jobs are based in Harrisonburg.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Harrisonburg, 2013 → 2023: 31,597 → 31,498. 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 Harrisonburg’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Harrisonburg commutes
About 29% 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.
Harrisonburg is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 23,876 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 65% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 25.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 98% 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). 6.5% of Harrisonburg households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Harrisonburg’s commuters take a bus or train.
Harrisonburg next to U.S. towns of 36,000 to 69,000: 623rd of 846 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Oakton VA | 36,528 | $161K | 4.6% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Ashburn VA | 46,026 | $155K | 4.0% | 3.2% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 621 | Penn Township IN | 68,726 | $66K | 12.5% | 5.3% | 20% | C+ |
| 622 | Montclair CA | 37,563 | $78K | 17.7% | 6.8% | 5% | C+ |
| 623 | Harrisonburg VA | 50,839 | $62K | 25.7% | 6.9% | 36% | C+ |
| 624 | Colton CA | 53,383 | $71K | 13.7% | 7.5% | 6% | C+ |
| 625 | La Crosse WI | 50,784 | $56K | 21.4% | 3.7% | 54% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 846 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Harrisonburg, 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.
- Students. 30% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Harrisonburg: questions
What is the median household income in Harrisonburg?
$62,254 (±$4,131) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Harrisonburg?
25.7% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 14.3%. Virginia: 9.9%.
How long is the commute from Harrisonburg?
17 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Harrisonburg work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bridgewater (4%, 6 mi), Dayton (3%, 4 mi), Richmond (2%, 98 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Harrisonburg walkable?
Harrisonburg is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.8 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Harrisonburg without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 65% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Harrisonburg, from the people who make the trip.
More of Harrisonburg
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.