Brooks-Brown House · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainPenhook has 0.2 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
There are 41 jobs in Penhook; 260 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Penhook is better than 68% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (B). Household incomes here are higher than in 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Penhook: the figures worth knowing
Penhook is a place people come home to
There are 41 jobs based in Penhook, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
Penhook workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 41 minutes each way, against 27 across Virginia. Over a year that’s about 314 hours of commuting, 107 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Penhook works from home
32% of Penhook workers work from home, against 18% across Virginia. Time on the road ↓
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; with 260 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Penhook’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Penhook’s grade up (0.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Penhook’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, Penhook could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
The daily commute in and out of Penhook
On a workday 257 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 38 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Penhook on a workday afternoon, 18% 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 2023, primary jobs.
About 41 minutes each way, longer than most of Virginia
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 13.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Penhook workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 256 commuters (the 32% 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.
16% of working residents work in Rocky Mount
Where Penhook clocks in
16% of workers
13% 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 kinds of work in Penhook
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Penhook, 2013 → 2023: 90 → 41. 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 Penhook’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Penhook to work
About 25% 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.
Most of Penhook commutes by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 5.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 378 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 2.1% of Penhook households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Penhook’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Penhook ranks: 889th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Occoquan VA | 1,078 | $134K | 2.1% | 5.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Haymarket VA | 1,602 | $174K | 3.2% | 4.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 887 | Prudhoe Bay AK | 1,664 | — | 6.3% | 1.2% | — | B+ |
| 888 | Sea Ranch CA | 1,287 | $139K | 3.0% | 3.5% | 5% | B+ |
| 889 | Penhook VA | 1,250 | $109K | 0.4% | 1.3% | 1% | B+ |
| 890 | Story WY | 1,054 | $114K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| 891 | Hanna City IL | 1,238 | $73K | 5.4% | 2.8% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Penhook, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
Penhook and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Penhook workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penhook | – | B+ | B | 41 min | $108,750 |
| Union Hall | under 2% | B+ | D | 33 min | $103,125 |
| North Shore | under 2% | B− | C− | 31 min | $109,951 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Penhook’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 Penhook: questions
What is the median household income in Penhook?
$108,750 (±$46,673) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Penhook?
0.4%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Penhook?
41 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 32% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Penhook work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rocky Mount (16%, 14 mi), Roanoke (13%, 26 mi), Cave Spring (3%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Penhook walkable?
Penhook is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Penhook without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Penhook, from the people who make the trip.
More of Penhook
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.