95% of Gainesville’s working residents leave town for work
Most working residents leave Gainesville for work: only 5% work in town. The top destinations are Chantilly (5%), Tysons (5%) and Reston (5%). Half commute less than 18 miles.
What kind of work town is Gainesville?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
What the 9,526 jobs in Gainesville are
9,526 jobs are based in Gainesville. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Gainesville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gainesville, 2013 → 2023: 6,372 → 9,526. 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.
About 35 minutes each way, longer than most of Virginia
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gainesville workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 8,142 residents head out to work, 472 work right here, and 9,054 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 (1.11 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.
5% of working residents work in Chantilly
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Gainesville clocks in
5% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Half of Gainesville commutes less than 18 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Gainesville and the towns next door
Darker towns draw more of Gainesville’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Every worker, home to work. The Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.
- Where the employer says. A job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.
- Two surveys. Flows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: the Census American Community Survey.
- Straight lines. Distances are as the crow flies between home and work. Roads, rivers and traffic make the real trip longer.
More of Gainesville
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gainesville, from the people who make the trip.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
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.