Oakley · Photo: Wikipelli · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.0 jobs for every working resident, most of Lake Wilderness works elsewhere
Measured by household income, Lake Wilderness is ahead of 88% of U.S. towns. Lake Wilderness has 39 jobs; 1,248 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Lake Wilderness is better than 74% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (C−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lake Wilderness at work: what stands out
Lake Wilderness is a place people come home to
There are 39 jobs based in Lake Wilderness, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Lake Wilderness has about 1,900 people in it, 39% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Lake Wilderness workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 38 minutes each way, against 27 across Virginia. Over a year that’s about 291 hours of commuting, 84 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Lake Wilderness earns its Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Lake Wilderness’ grade up (1.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 31% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lake Wilderness could be anywhere from B to A.
In and out of Lake Wilderness on a workday
On a workday 1,238 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 29 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Lake Wilderness on a workday afternoon, 39% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Commuting from Lake Wilderness: about 38 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Wilderness workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,399 commuters (the 13% 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.
10% of working residents work in Fredericksburg
Where Lake Wilderness clocks in
10% 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.
Lake Wilderness is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Wilderness, 2014 → 2024: 25 → 39. 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 Lake Wilderness’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Lake Wilderness
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.
Most trips from Lake Wilderness start in a car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,604 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). 0.0% of Lake Wilderness households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lake Wilderness’ commuters take a bus or train.
Lake Wilderness is 1,051st of 4,562 U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,200 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Sully Square VA | 2,394 | $176K | 0.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | One Loudoun VA | 3,309 | $241K | 0.9% | 0.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Oak Grove VA | 2,408 | $174K | 0.6% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,049 | West Sadsbury Township PA | 2,458 | $94K | 11.8% | 1.9% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,050 | Bethel Township PA | 4,160 | $94K | 8.4% | 2.6% | 9% | B+ |
| 1,051 | Lake Wilderness VA | 3,139 | $121K | 1.5% | 4.4% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,052 | Millstadt IL | 3,950 | $91K | 7.4% | 4.3% | 8% | B+ |
| 1,053 | Florida NY | 2,852 | $123K | 6.8% | 4.6% | 7% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,562 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Lake Wilderness, 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 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 Lake Wilderness: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Wilderness?
$120,700 (±$10,919) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Wilderness?
1.5%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Wilderness?
38 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake Wilderness work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fredericksburg (10%, 13 mi), Washington (2%, 56 mi), Arlington (2%, 52 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Lake Wilderness walkable?
Lake Wilderness is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Wilderness without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lake Wilderness, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Wilderness
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.