Photo: Doug Kerr · CC BY-SA 2.0At 0.5%, unemployment in Lebanon is lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
8% of workers work from home; Virginia has 18%. The two grades for Lebanon are C for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lebanon, in a few figures
Inside Lebanon’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lebanon is better than 34% of U.S. towns, #211 of 253 in Virginia. Unemployment holds Lebanon’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($53,050, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lebanon could be anywhere from C− to B.
The workday shuffle in and out of Lebanon
On a workday 972 residents head out to work, 238 work right here, and 3,025 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,100 people are in Lebanon on a workday afternoon, 67% more than live here.
2.7 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.
Who travels to work in Lebanon, and from where
Where Lebanon clocks in
7% of workers
4% 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 Lebanon’s employers do
3,263 jobs are based in Lebanon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lebanon, 2013 → 2023: 4,017 → 3,263. 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 Lebanon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Lebanon: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lebanon workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 978 commuters (the 8% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Lebanon
About 16% 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.
Lebanon is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lebanon is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns, #110 of 253 in Virginia. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,067 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). 8.2% of Lebanon households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lebanon’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Lebanon is 2,995th of 4,562 U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,200
| # | 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% | 2% | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Oak Grove VA | 2,408 | $174K | 0.6% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,993 | New Cordell OK | 2,746 | $73K | 10.0% | 4.4% | 30% | C |
| 2,994 | Frackville PA | 3,893 | $57K | 18.8% | 3.0% | 5% | C |
| 2,995 | Lebanon VA | 3,075 | $53K | 17.8% | 0.5% | 20% | C |
| 2,996 | Lancaster NH | 3,218 | $69K | 16.7% | 1.9% | 26% | C |
| 2,997 | Franklin Township PA | 2,272 | $57K | 10.9% | 8.5% | 5% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,562 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Lebanon, 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 Lebanon: questions
What is the median household income in Lebanon?
$53,050 (±$22,956) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lebanon?
17.8%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lebanon?
25 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lebanon work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Abingdon (7%, 15 mi), Bristol (4%, 20 mi), Richlands (2%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lebanon walkable?
Lebanon is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lebanon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lebanon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lebanon
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.