Harris Farm · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainRivanna’s household incomes are higher than in 94% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income A: better than 88% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability D: more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 23 minutes each way (Virginia 27, U.S. 26). Only 2% work in Rivanna; the top destination outside it is Charlottesville (30%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Rivanna, in brief
Most Rivanna residents work close to home
64% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
30% of Rivanna works in Charlottesville
260 working residents, 30%, have their main job in Charlottesville, 6.5 miles away. That’s 15 times as many as work in Rivanna itself. The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Rivanna
69% of Rivanna residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 42% of the jobs based in Rivanna pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 98% leave town for their job. 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 870 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Rivanna’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Rivanna is better than 88% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($146,328, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 52% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (8.1%) is left out: Rivanna’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, Rivanna could be anywhere from A− to A.
Half of Rivanna commutes less than 8 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 23% 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.
30% of working residents work in Charlottesville
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Rivanna clocks in
30% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
546 jobs are based in Rivanna. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Rivanna’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rivanna, 2013 → 2023: 489 → 546. 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.
Rivanna quiets down on a workday
On a workday 851 residents head out to work, 19 work right here, and 527 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Rivanna on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.63 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.
About 23 minutes each way, quicker than most of Virginia
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rivanna workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 522 commuters (the 29% who work from home are left out). Across Virginia: 83% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Most trips from Rivanna start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rivanna is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Rivanna near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 738 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 0.0 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 Rivanna households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rivanna’s commuters take a bus or train.
Rivanna is 454th of 5,641 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 3,000 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Rivanna, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Oak Grove VA | 2,408 | $174K | 0.6% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Mason Neck VA | 2,039 | $168K | 1.1% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 452 | Erienna Township IL | 2,496 | $97K | 3.8% | 1.6% | 1% | A |
| 453 | Ko Olina HI | 1,670 | $133K | 6.8% | 0.8% | 3% | A |
| 454 | Rivanna VA | 2,211 | $146K | 4.6% | 8.1% | 2% | A |
| 455 | Folly Beach SC | 2,081 | $102K | 4.0% | 2.1% | 13% | A |
| 456 | Princetown NY | 2,113 | $98K | 4.2% | 4.1% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,641 | 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.
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 Rivanna: questions
What is the median household income in Rivanna?
$146,328 (±$36,466) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rivanna?
4.6%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rivanna?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 29% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rivanna work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charlottesville (30%, 6 mi), University of Virginia (13%, 8 mi), Pantops (4%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rivanna walkable?
Rivanna is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rivanna without a car?
0% 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 Rivanna, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rivanna
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.