Data / Rankings / Civilian labor force / Cities in Virginia

Cities in Virginia by civilian labor force

Virginia Beach, VA had the highest civilian labor force of 33 cities in 2018, at 232,147. Martinsville, VA had the lowest, at 6,002. The median was 18,278. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Highest232,147Virginia Beach, VA
Lowest6,002Martinsville, VA
Median18,27833 cities

All cities, 2018

Virginia Beach, VA: 232,147 personsVirginia Beach, VA232,147Richmond, VA: 125,590 personsRichmond, VA125,590Chesapeake, VA: 119,832 personsChesapeake, VA119,832Norfolk, VA: 110,121 personsNorfolk, VA110,121Alexandria, VA: 99,453 personsAlexandria, VA99,453Newport News, VA: 88,693 personsNewport News, VA88,693Hampton, VA: 65,641 personsHampton, VA65,641Roanoke, VA: 48,353 personsRoanoke, VA48,353Suffolk, VA: 44,647 personsSuffolk, VA44,647Portsmouth, VA: 43,818 personsPortsmouth, VA43,818Lynchburg, VA: 37,942 personsLynchburg, VA37,942Leesburg, VA: 28,216 personsLeesburg, VA28,216Harrisonburg, VA: 26,142 personsHarrisonburg, VA26,142Charlottesville, VA: 25,190 personsCharlottesville, VA25,190Manassas, VA: 23,248 personsManassas, VA23,248Blacksburg, VA: 20,302 personsBlacksburg, VA20,302Danville, VA: 18,278 personsDanville, VA18,278Fredericksburg, VA: 15,309 personsFredericksburg, VA15,309Petersburg, VA: 14,865 personsPetersburg, VA14,865Winchester, VA: 14,602 personsWinchester, VA14,602Fairfax, VA: 13,085 personsFairfax, VA13,085Salem, VA: 12,727 personsSalem, VA12,727Staunton, VA: 12,210 personsStaunton, VA12,210Waynesboro, VA: 10,956 personsWaynesboro, VA10,956Manassas Park, VA: 10,359 personsManassas Park, VA10,359Hopewell, VA: 10,130 personsHopewell, VA10,130Colonial Heights, VA: 9,086 personsColonial Heights, VA9,086Radford, VA: 7,941 personsRadford, VA7,941Falls Church, VA: 7,924 personsFalls Church, VA7,924Bristol, VA: 7,472 personsBristol, VA7,472Williamsburg, VA: 6,664 personsWilliamsburg, VA6,664Poquoson, VA: 6,506 personsPoquoson, VA6,506Martinsville, VA: 6,002 personsMartinsville, VA6,002Virginia Beach, VA: 232,147 personsVirginia Beach, VA232,147Richmond, VA: 125,590 personsRichmond, VA125,590Chesapeake, VA: 119,832 personsChesapeake, VA119,832Norfolk, VA: 110,121 personsNorfolk, VA110,121Alexandria, VA: 99,453 personsAlexandria, VA99,453Newport News, VA: 88,693 personsNewport News, VA88,693Hampton, VA: 65,641 personsHampton, VA65,641Roanoke, VA: 48,353 personsRoanoke, VA48,353Suffolk, VA: 44,647 personsSuffolk, VA44,647Portsmouth, VA: 43,818 personsPortsmouth, VA43,818Lynchburg, VA: 37,942 personsLynchburg, VA37,942Leesburg, VA: 28,216 personsLeesburg, VA28,216Harrisonburg, VA: 26,142 personsHarrisonburg, VA26,142Charlottesville, VA: 25,190 personsCharlottesville, VA25,190Manassas, VA: 23,248 personsManassas, VA23,248Blacksburg, VA: 20,302 personsBlacksburg, VA20,302Danville, VA: 18,278 personsDanville, VA18,278Fredericksburg, VA: 15,309 personsFredericksburg, VA15,309Petersburg, VA: 14,865 personsPetersburg, VA14,865Winchester, VA: 14,602 personsWinchester, VA14,602Fairfax, VA: 13,085 personsFairfax, VA13,085Salem, VA: 12,727 personsSalem, VA12,727Staunton, VA: 12,210 personsStaunton, VA12,210Waynesboro, VA: 10,956 personsWaynesboro, VA10,956Manassas Park, VA: 10,359 personsManassas Park, VA10,359Hopewell, VA: 10,130 personsHopewell, VA10,130Colonial Heights, VA: 9,086 personsColonial Heights, VA9,086Radford, VA: 7,941 personsRadford, VA7,941Falls Church, VA: 7,924 personsFalls Church, VA7,924Bristol, VA: 7,472 personsBristol, VA7,472Williamsburg, VA: 6,664 personsWilliamsburg, VA6,664Poquoson, VA: 6,506 personsPoquoson, VA6,506Martinsville, VA: 6,002 personsMartinsville, VA6,002
persons. Source: BLS, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

RankCities2018
persons		Change on 2017
1Virginia Beach, VA232,147+0.4%
2Richmond, VA125,590+0.6%
3Chesapeake, VA119,832+1.3%
4Norfolk, VA110,121-0.8%
5Alexandria, VA99,453+0.2%
6Newport News, VA88,693-0.2%
7Hampton, VA65,6410%
8Roanoke, VA48,353-0.4%
9Suffolk, VA44,647+1.2%
10Portsmouth, VA43,818-0.3%
11Lynchburg, VA37,942+0.1%
12Leesburg, VA28,2160%
13Harrisonburg, VA26,142-1%
14Charlottesville, VA25,190+0.2%
15Manassas, VA23,248+0.4%
16Blacksburg, VA20,302+0.2%
17Danville, VA18,278-1.9%
18Fredericksburg, VA15,309+1.9%
19Petersburg, VA14,865-1%
20Winchester, VA14,602-1%
21Fairfax, VA13,085+0.6%
22Salem, VA12,727-0.8%
23Staunton, VA12,210+1%
24Waynesboro, VA10,956+0.3%
25Manassas Park, VA10,359+4.9%
26Hopewell, VA10,130-0.6%
27Colonial Heights, VA9,086+0.1%
28Radford, VA7,941-0.9%
29Falls Church, VA7,924+1.7%
30Bristol, VA7,472-1.8%
31Williamsburg, VA6,664+0.8%
32Poquoson, VA6,506+1.1%
33Martinsville, VA6,002-0.6%

Other periods

About this ranking

Employed plus unemployed residents, annual average.

More on how it is measured
  • People aged 16 and over by place of residence, from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Active-duty military personnel and people living in institutions are excluded.

United States cities only for now. Counts people where they live, not jobs: for wage and salary jobs by state use oews_employment. BLS estimates cities by splitting county estimates with Census Bureau employment and population data and unemployment insurance claims, so city figures are less precise than state ones. BLS publishes cities of 25,000 or more, and smaller cities in New England.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the cities are compared on one definition. 1 cities with data in other periods have no value for 2018 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average (Cities in Virginia by civilian labor force, 2018) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19

MLA 9

Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average, Cities in Virginia by civilian labor force, 2018. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 30 Sept. 2026, https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2018. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2026. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. Cities in Virginia by civilian labor force, 2018. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2018.

Harvard

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026) Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average, Cities in Virginia by civilian labor force, 2018 [Dataset]. Available at: https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2018 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{bureau_cities_in_virginia_by_2018,
  author = {{U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics}},
  title = {{Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average: Cities in Virginia by civilian labor force, 2018}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2018. Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
AU  - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
TI  - Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average: Cities in Virginia by civilian labor force, 2018
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
PB  - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2018
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2018.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -
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Rank Cities in Virginia by civilian labor force using official data, and cite the source.
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Questions

Which city has the highest civilian labor force?

Virginia Beach, VA, with 232,147 in 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which city has the lowest civilian labor force?

Martinsville, VA, with 6,002 in 2018.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12. 1 cities have no value for 2018 and are not ranked.

Civilian labor force: other rankings

Cities in Virginia: more rankings