Photo: By nannetteturner; Nannette Turner · CC BY 2.0Rustburg has 4.1 jobs for every working resident: 2,074 people commute in to work
10% of workers have no commute at all; Virginia has 18%. 2,101 jobs are based in Rustburg for 518 working residents. Rustburg grades C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Rustburg: the figures worth knowing
Rustburg fills up on a workday
Rustburg has 2,101 jobs, 4.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,000 people are in town, more than double the 1,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
37% of Rustburg works in Lynchburg
190 working residents, 37%, have their main job in Lynchburg, 10 miles away. That’s 7 times as many as work in Rustburg itself. The commute map ↓
Nearly all the work in Rustburg is services
91% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 0% are in factories, building or farms. 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 518 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Rustburg’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Rustburg is better than 24% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Rustburg’s grade up ($72,950, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (22.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (7.5%) is left out: Rustburg’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Rustburg could be anywhere from D to B.
Rustburg’s population more than doubles on a workday
On a workday 491 residents head out to work and 27 work right here.
About 3,000 people are in Rustburg on a workday afternoon, 112% more 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.
Where Rustburg’s workers come from
Where Rustburg clocks in
4% of workers
4% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Rustburg
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rustburg, 2013 → 2023: 2,209 → 2,101. 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 Rustburg’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Rustburg’s commute takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rustburg workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 603 commuters (the 10% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Rustburg
About 19% 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 Rustburg commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rustburg is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 33.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Virginia, on an EPA index of 5.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 669 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). 7.6% of Rustburg households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rustburg’s commuters take a bus or train.
Rustburg places 3,787th of 5,877 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Occoquan VA | 1,078 | $134K | 2.1% | 5.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 87 | Bull Run Mountain Estates VA | 1,827 | $250K | 1.1% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,785 | Sullivan OH | 1,027 | $68K | 8.8% | 2.8% | 0% | C− |
| 3,786 | Bonneau Beach SC | 1,516 | $61K | 13.7% | 0.0% | 1% | C− |
| 3,787 | Rustburg VA | 1,417 | $73K | 22.3% | 7.5% | 5% | C− |
| 3,788 | George IA | 1,093 | $58K | 9.3% | 2.6% | 11% | C− |
| 3,789 | Hebron NE | 1,384 | $66K | 9.3% | 1.4% | 33% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Rustburg, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
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 Rustburg: questions
What is the median household income in Rustburg?
$72,950 (±$11,146) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rustburg?
22.3%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rustburg?
19 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rustburg work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lynchburg (37%, 10 mi), Forest (4%, 12 mi), Roanoke (4%, 47 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rustburg walkable?
Rustburg is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 34% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rustburg without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rustburg, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rustburg
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.