Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHousehold incomes in Honaker are lower than in 93% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 5% of workers (Virginia 18%). Below the poverty line: 26.5% of residents; Virginia has 9.9%. The two grades for Honaker are D− for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Honaker, in brief
What’s behind Honaker’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Honaker is better than 2% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Honaker’s grade.
Unemployment (0.5%) is left out: Honaker’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Honaker could be anywhere from D− to D.
A commute of about 38 minutes in Honaker
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Honaker workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 357 commuters (the 5% 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.
A workday in Honaker: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 380 residents head out to work, 14 work right here, and 279 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.
0.74 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.
14% of working residents work in Lebanon
Where Honaker clocks in
14% of workers
3% 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 293 jobs in Honaker are
293 jobs are based in Honaker.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Honaker, 2013 → 2023: 378 → 293. 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 Honaker’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Honaker, by distance
About 20% 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.
For most of Honaker, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Honaker is more walkable than 15% 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 375 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). 16.2% of Honaker households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Honaker’s commuters take a bus or train.
Honaker and other U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Occoquan VA | 1,078 | $134K | 2.1% | 5.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 167 | Kincora VA | 1,008 | $134K | 8.8% | 6.3% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,155 | Hurley NM | 1,211 | $36K | 17.7% | 3.4% | 3% | D− |
| 4,156 | Carnegie OK | 1,366 | $44K | 21.6% | 5.0% | 29% | D− |
| 4,157 | Honaker VA | 1,191 | $44K | 26.5% | 0.5% | 4% | D− |
| 4,158 | Clay Township MO | 1,126 | $50K | 27.7% | 1.5% | 11% | D− |
| 4,159 | Cascade ID | 1,018 | $54K | 32.0% | 8.8% | 27% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Honaker, 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 Honaker: questions
What is the median household income in Honaker?
$44,183 (±$16,477) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Honaker?
26.5%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Honaker?
38 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Honaker work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lebanon (14%, 10 mi), Claypool Hill (4%, 12 mi), Abingdon (3%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Honaker walkable?
Honaker is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Honaker without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Honaker, from the people who make the trip.
More of Honaker
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.