Cobble Hill Farm · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainStaunton has higher unemployment (5.3%) than 65% of U.S. towns
For 9% of workers, the job is at home, next to 18% for Virginia as a whole. Jobs and income earn Staunton C+; getting around on foot earns it A−. About one in five work in Staunton itself; outside it, Fishersville draws the most (7%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Staunton and work: the main findings
Staunton trades workers with the towns around it
Staunton has about as many jobs (10,885) as working residents (11,518), but they are mostly different people: 8,895 residents leave for work each day while 8,262 people come in. Only 24% of the jobs in Staunton are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Staunton are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 27 across Virginia. That’s about 46 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Staunton
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Staunton is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #201 of 253 in Virginia. Job access by car holds Staunton’s grade up (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Staunton could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Who commutes out of Staunton, and who commutes in
On a workday 8,895 residents head out to work, 2,623 work right here, and 8,262 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.95 per resident).
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 21 minutes to work from Staunton
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Staunton workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 10,774 commuters (the 9% 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.
Where people from Staunton work
Where Staunton clocks in
7% of workers
6% 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 Staunton
10,885 jobs are based in Staunton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Staunton, 2013 → 2023: 10,833 → 10,885. 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 Staunton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Staunton to work
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Staunton
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Staunton is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns, #98 of 253 in Virginia. Both inputs place Staunton 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 11,816 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). 8.1% of Staunton households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Staunton’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,177th of 1,477: where Staunton ranks among U.S. towns of 19,000 to 36,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Rose Hill VA | 21,066 | $175K | 2.6% | 2.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Short Pump VA | 29,026 | $139K | 3.6% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,175 | Bellview FL | 26,488 | $70K | 15.4% | 5.6% | 3% | C+ |
| 1,176 | Burlington IA | 23,336 | $59K | 13.2% | 3.9% | 40% | C+ |
| 1,177 | Staunton VA | 26,801 | $66K | 12.4% | 5.3% | 23% | C+ |
| 1,178 | Oak Harbor WA | 24,083 | $76K | 8.3% | 5.4% | 23% | C+ |
| 1,179 | Brenham TX | 19,957 | $65K | 18.9% | 3.5% | 36% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,477 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Staunton, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
Next door to Staunton
The biggest share goes to Verona (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Staunton’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 Staunton: questions
What is the median household income in Staunton?
$65,581 (±$4,919) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Staunton?
12.4%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Staunton?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Staunton work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fishersville (7%, 6 mi), Stuarts Draft (6%, 10 mi), Verona (6%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Staunton walkable?
Staunton is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Staunton without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Staunton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Staunton
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.