Downtown Hopewell Historic District (Boundary Increase) · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainAt 9.2%, unemployment in Hopewell is higher than in 92% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Hopewell are C− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 82% of U.S. towns. About one in ten work in Hopewell; the top destination outside it is Richmond (10%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Hopewell at work: what stands out
Where Hopewell’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Hopewell is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #236 of 253 in Virginia. Job access by car holds Hopewell’s grade up (ahead of 78% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hopewell could be anywhere from D to C.
Where Hopewell’s working residents head each day
Where Hopewell clocks in
10% of workers
4% 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.
Who commutes out of Hopewell, and who commutes in
On a workday 8,777 residents head out to work, 1,132 work right here, and 5,953 people come in from elsewhere.
About 20,000 people are in Hopewell on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.72 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 2024, primary jobs.
Hopewell works in goods: 33% of its jobs
7,085 jobs are based in Hopewell.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hopewell, 2014 → 2024: 7,638 → 7,085. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Hopewell’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Hopewell takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hopewell workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,798 commuters (the 12% 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 Hopewell goes to work
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Hopewell, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hopewell is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns, #215 of 253 in Virginia. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 9,951 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). 11.7% of Hopewell households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Hopewell’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Hopewell sits among U.S. towns of 16,000 to 31,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Rose Hill VA | 21,066 | $175K | 2.6% | 2.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Franconia VA | 18,335 | $152K | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,544 | St. Andrews SC | 19,868 | $47K | 25.4% | 7.2% | 3% | C− |
| 1,545 | Rosamond CA | 21,473 | $79K | 17.1% | 9.1% | 9% | C− |
| 1,546 | Hopewell VA | 23,261 | $55K | 21.8% | 9.2% | 11% | C− |
| 1,547 | Greenfield MA | 17,691 | $56K | 15.2% | 6.3% | 25% | C− |
| 1,548 | Jacksonville AR | 29,460 | $50K | 19.8% | 8.4% | 12% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,712 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 28% | 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 Hopewell, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
How Hopewell compares with the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Hopewell’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 2024, 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 Hopewell: questions
What is the median household income in Hopewell?
$54,729 (±$7,645) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hopewell?
21.8%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hopewell?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hopewell work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Richmond (10%, 19 mi), Petersburg (4%, 8 mi), Colonial Heights (3%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Hopewell walkable?
Hopewell is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hopewell without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hopewell, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hopewell
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.