Photo: Magnolia677 · CC BY 4.0Most of Raven commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
Employers in Raven report 111 jobs for 649 working residents. For jobs and income Raven is better than 11% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (B−). Measured by household income, Raven is behind 84% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Raven and work: the main findings
Raven is a place people come home to
There are 111 jobs based in Raven, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Raven has about 810 people in it, 40% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Raven workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Raven’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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; with 649 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Raven
The poverty rate holds Raven’s grade up (12.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down.
Unemployment (9.6%) is left out: Raven’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, Raven could be anywhere from D− to C+.
The daily flow of workers through Raven
On a workday 639 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 101 people come in from elsewhere.
About 810 people are in Raven on a workday afternoon, 40% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 52% of the jobs in Raven
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Raven, 2013 → 2023: 85 → 111. 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 Raven’s own residents hold wherever they work.
12% of working residents work in Richlands
Where Raven clocks in
12% of workers
8% 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 long Raven spends getting to work: about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Raven workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 477 commuters (the 6% 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 Raven, by distance
About 24% 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 Raven, work means a drive
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 3.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 506 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). 6.5% of Raven households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Raven’s commuters take a bus or train.
Raven places 4,366th of 5,400 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Great Falls Crossing VA | 1,414 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Occoquan VA | 1,078 | $134K | 2.1% | 5.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Haymarket VA | 1,602 | $174K | 3.2% | 4.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,364 | Branch Township MI | 1,413 | $62K | 14.4% | 7.1% | 2% | D |
| 4,365 | Sebastian TX | 1,021 | $23K | 38.0% | 12.6% | <1% | D |
| 4,366 | Raven VA | 1,345 | $53K | 12.8% | 9.6% | 2% | D |
| 4,367 | Camargo KY | 1,051 | $48K | 26.7% | 7.0% | 1% | D |
| 4,368 | Frankfort MI | 1,280 | $54K | 12.3% | 6.7% | 27% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Raven, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
Raven and its neighbors: 12% work next door
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Richlands. Darker towns draw more of Raven’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 Raven: questions
What is the median household income in Raven?
$52,619 (±$21,202) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Raven?
12.8%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Raven?
27 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Raven work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Richlands (12%, 3 mi), Tazewell (8%, 20 mi), Claypool Hill (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Raven walkable?
Raven is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 3.7 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Raven without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Raven, from the people who make the trip.
More of Raven
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.