Advance Mills · Photo: Cecouchman · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Piney Mountain earn more than those in 93% of U.S. towns
Hardly any stay in Piney Mountain for work; outside it, Charlottesville is the main destination (22%, 10 miles). The poverty rate is 2.7%; Virginia has 9.9%. Piney Mountain grades A+ 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
What sets Piney Mountain apart on work
The jobs in Piney Mountain pay better than its residents’ jobs
89% of the jobs based in Piney Mountain pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 63% of the jobs Piney Mountain residents hold. 99% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Piney Mountain. The jobs ↓
Piney Mountain makes and builds things
36% of the jobs based in Piney Mountain are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Piney Mountain residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 8%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Piney Mountain are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 27 across Virginia. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Virginia worker. 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 864 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Piney Mountain’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Piney Mountain is better than 95% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Piney Mountain’s grade up (hardly any, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 48% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Piney Mountain could be anywhere from A to A+.
Making and building: 36% of jobs based in Piney Mountain
645 jobs are based in Piney Mountain.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Piney Mountain, 2013 → 2023: 157 → 645. 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 Piney Mountain’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Piney Mountain: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Piney Mountain workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 959 commuters (the 15% 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.
Piney Mountain quiets down on a workday
On a workday 857 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 638 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,100 people are in Piney Mountain on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.75 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.
Where Piney Mountain goes to work
Where Piney Mountain clocks in
22% 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.
How many miles Piney Mountain commutes
About 21% 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.
For most of Piney Mountain, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Piney Mountain is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,134 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). 0.0% of Piney Mountain households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Piney Mountain’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Piney Mountain is 188th among 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Sully Square VA | 2,394 | $176K | 0.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Oak Grove VA | 2,408 | $174K | 0.6% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Mason Neck VA | 2,039 | $168K | 1.1% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 186 | St. Jacob Township IL | 2,880 | $121K | 2.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| 187 | Denmark Township MN | 1,906 | $148K | 2.2% | 3.0% | 1% | A+ |
| 188 | Piney Mountain VA | 2,288 | $139K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| 189 | Middle Creek Township KS | 1,876 | $136K | 2.3% | 4.6% | 4% | A |
| 190 | Palmer Township MN | 2,633 | $121K | 2.1% | 0.2% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Piney Mountain, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
Piney Mountain and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Hollymead (4%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Piney Mountain workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piney Mountain | – | A+ | C | 22 min | $138,636 |
| Hollymead | 4% | A | C+ | 24 min | $118,250 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Piney Mountain’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 Piney Mountain: questions
What is the median household income in Piney Mountain?
$138,636 (±$16,332) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Piney Mountain?
2.7%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Piney Mountain?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Piney Mountain work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charlottesville (22%, 10 mi), University of Virginia (14%, 11 mi), Pantops (4%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Piney Mountain walkable?
Piney Mountain is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Piney Mountain without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Piney Mountain, from the people who make the trip.
More of Piney Mountain
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.