Photo: Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Surry has 7.4 jobs per working resident, and 515 people come in to work
Only 4% stay in Surry for work; outside it, Newport News is the main destination (6%, 18 miles). Surry has 518 jobs, and 70 of its residents work somewhere. For 12% of workers, the job is at home, against 18% across Virginia.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How a workday changes Surry
On a workday 67 residents head out to work and 3 work right here.
About 660 people are in Surry on a workday afternoon, 213% 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 Surry’s workers come from
Where Surry clocks in
6% of workers
3% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Surry
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Surry, 2013 → 2023: 543 → 518. 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 Surry’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 30 minutes each way, longer than most of Virginia
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Surry workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 82 commuters (the 12% 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 in the region Surry works
About 28% 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 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 Surry: questions
What is the median household income in Surry?
$85,417 (±$17,979) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Surry?
2.4%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Surry?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Surry work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Newport News (6%, 18 mi), Stony Creek (3%, 34 mi), Windsor (3%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Surry without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Surry, from the people who make the trip.
More of Surry
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.