Photo: Carmenshields · CC BY 3.0Household incomes in Madison Heights trail those of 74% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 9% of workers (Virginia 18%). 10.5% of residents live below the poverty line; Virginia has 9.9%. Madison Heights grades C+ for jobs and income and C+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Madison Heights, in brief
39% of Madison Heights works in Lynchburg
1,780 working residents, 39%, have their main job in Lynchburg, 5.9 miles away across the town line. That’s 6 times as many as work in Madison Heights itself. The commute map ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
40% of the jobs in Madison Heights are in trade, transport and utilities, against 19% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
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.
Inside Madison Heights’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Madison Heights is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #199 of 253 in Virginia. Job access by car holds Madison Heights’ grade up (ahead of 54% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($60,215, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Madison Heights could be anywhere from C− to B.
39% of working residents work in Lynchburg
Where Madison Heights clocks in
6% 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.
The 2,763 jobs based in Madison Heights
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Madison Heights, 2013 → 2023: 2,736 → 2,763. 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 Madison Heights’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Madison Heights on a workday afternoon
On a workday 4,267 residents head out to work, 337 work right here, and 2,426 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,400 people are in Madison Heights on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.60 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.
How long Madison Heights spends getting to work: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Madison Heights workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,435 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.
The commute from Madison Heights, by distance
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Few in Madison Heights walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Madison Heights is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns, #202 of 253 in Virginia. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.2% 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 4,858 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 38% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 19% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 60% 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). 5.3% of Madison Heights households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Madison Heights’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,878 U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000, Madison Heights comes 2,070th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Difficult Run VA | 9,938 | $250K | 1.4% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Belmont VA | 9,729 | $243K | 2.1% | 1.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Long Branch VA | 7,034 | $185K | 1.6% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,068 | Richfield UT | 8,478 | $75K | 12.5% | 3.7% | 40% | C+ |
| 2,069 | Pukalani HI | 8,679 | $103K | 10.6% | 9.7% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,070 | Madison Heights VA | 10,266 | $60K | 10.5% | 5.2% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,071 | Bedford Heights OH | 10,691 | $50K | 12.7% | 6.5% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,072 | Placerville CA | 10,685 | $67K | 15.9% | 4.3% | 18% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Madison Heights, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
39% of Madison Heights works in a town next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Madison Heights workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madison Heights | – | C+ | C+ | 24 min | $60,215 |
| Lynchburg | 39% | C | A+ | 17 min | $57,947 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Lynchburg. Darker towns draw more of Madison Heights’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 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 Madison Heights: questions
What is the median household income in Madison Heights?
$60,215 (±$7,458) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Madison Heights?
10.5%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Madison Heights?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Madison Heights work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lynchburg (39%, 6 mi), Amherst (6%, 10 mi), Forest (3%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Madison Heights walkable?
Madison Heights is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Madison Heights without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 19% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Madison Heights, from the people who make the trip.
More of Madison Heights
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.