Photo: Jquesen2003 · Public domainStuart’s household incomes are lower than in 92% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 10% of workers (Virginia 18%). Poverty touches 20.1% of residents, against 9.9% across Virginia. Jobs and income earn Stuart D; getting around on foot earns it C+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Stuart: the figures worth knowing
Stuart has far more jobs than workers
Stuart has 1,623 jobs, 3.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,500 people are in town, 78% more than the 1,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
Stuart’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Stuart is Martinsville, 23 miles away as the crow flies. 8% of working residents (40) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Stuart workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Stuart’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 16% 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 518 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Stuart’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Stuart is better than 6% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Stuart’s grade.
Unemployment (6.1%) is left out: Stuart’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, Stuart could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Stuart
On a workday 420 residents head out to work, 98 work right here, and 1,525 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Stuart on a workday afternoon, 78% more than live here.
3.1 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Miles to work from Stuart
About 16% 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.
What the 1,623 jobs in Stuart are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Stuart, 2013 → 2023: 1,565 → 1,623. 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 Stuart’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Stuart
Where Stuart clocks in
8% 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.
Commuting from Stuart: about 22 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Stuart workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 607 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.
The commute in Stuart is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Stuart is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 5.7% across Virginia.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 672 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). 15.4% of Stuart households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Stuart’s commuters take a bus or train.
Stuart next to U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900: 5,216th of 5,877 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,214 | Fairland OK | 1,100 | $43K | 15.0% | 5.0% | 4% | D |
| 5,215 | Wheeler TX | 1,431 | $56K | 18.0% | 4.3% | 27% | D |
| 5,216 | Stuart VA | 1,409 | $46K | 20.1% | 6.1% | 19% | D |
| 5,217 | New Haven WV | 1,385 | $56K | 19.6% | 0.3% | 3% | D |
| 5,218 | Noble Township IL | 1,379 | $50K | 16.0% | 4.4% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Stuart, 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 Stuart: questions
What is the median household income in Stuart?
$45,625 (±$14,618) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Stuart?
20.1%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Stuart?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Stuart work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Martinsville (8%, 23 mi), Patrick Springs (5%, 4 mi), Roanoke (4%, 47 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Stuart walkable?
Stuart is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Stuart without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Stuart, from the people who make the trip.
More of Stuart
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.