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 2023, at 235,121. Martinsville, VA had the lowest, at 6,167. The median was 17,743. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Highest235,121Virginia Beach, VA
Lowest6,167Martinsville, VA
Median17,74333 cities

All cities, 2023

Virginia Beach, VA: 235,121 personsVirginia Beach, VA235,121Richmond, VA: 129,805 personsRichmond, VA129,805Chesapeake, VA: 126,611 personsChesapeake, VA126,611Norfolk, VA: 108,164 personsNorfolk, VA108,164Alexandria, VA: 100,498 personsAlexandria, VA100,498Newport News, VA: 89,588 personsNewport News, VA89,588Hampton, VA: 67,210 personsHampton, VA67,210Suffolk, VA: 49,980 personsSuffolk, VA49,980Roanoke, VA: 48,592 personsRoanoke, VA48,592Portsmouth, VA: 44,222 personsPortsmouth, VA44,222Lynchburg, VA: 37,907 personsLynchburg, VA37,907Leesburg, VA: 30,013 personsLeesburg, VA30,013Harrisonburg, VA: 26,372 personsHarrisonburg, VA26,372Charlottesville, VA: 24,723 personsCharlottesville, VA24,723Manassas, VA: 24,120 personsManassas, VA24,120Blacksburg, VA: 22,029 personsBlacksburg, VA22,029Danville, VA: 17,743 personsDanville, VA17,743Fredericksburg, VA: 16,300 personsFredericksburg, VA16,300Petersburg, VA: 14,992 personsPetersburg, VA14,992Winchester, VA: 14,939 personsWinchester, VA14,939Fairfax, VA: 14,296 personsFairfax, VA14,296Salem, VA: 13,289 personsSalem, VA13,289Staunton, VA: 13,198 personsStaunton, VA13,198Waynesboro, VA: 12,028 personsWaynesboro, VA12,028Hopewell, VA: 10,119 personsHopewell, VA10,119Manassas Park, VA: 10,064 personsManassas Park, VA10,064Colonial Heights, VA: 9,310 personsColonial Heights, VA9,310Radford, VA: 8,965 personsRadford, VA8,965Falls Church, VA: 8,323 personsFalls Church, VA8,323Bristol, VA: 7,486 personsBristol, VA7,486Williamsburg, VA: 7,208 personsWilliamsburg, VA7,208Poquoson, VA: 6,789 personsPoquoson, VA6,789Martinsville, VA: 6,167 personsMartinsville, VA6,167Virginia Beach, VA: 235,121 personsVirginia Beach, VA235,121Richmond, VA: 129,805 personsRichmond, VA129,805Chesapeake, VA: 126,611 personsChesapeake, VA126,611Norfolk, VA: 108,164 personsNorfolk, VA108,164Alexandria, VA: 100,498 personsAlexandria, VA100,498Newport News, VA: 89,588 personsNewport News, VA89,588Hampton, VA: 67,210 personsHampton, VA67,210Suffolk, VA: 49,980 personsSuffolk, VA49,980Roanoke, VA: 48,592 personsRoanoke, VA48,592Portsmouth, VA: 44,222 personsPortsmouth, VA44,222Lynchburg, VA: 37,907 personsLynchburg, VA37,907Leesburg, VA: 30,013 personsLeesburg, VA30,013Harrisonburg, VA: 26,372 personsHarrisonburg, VA26,372Charlottesville, VA: 24,723 personsCharlottesville, VA24,723Manassas, VA: 24,120 personsManassas, VA24,120Blacksburg, VA: 22,029 personsBlacksburg, VA22,029Danville, VA: 17,743 personsDanville, VA17,743Fredericksburg, VA: 16,300 personsFredericksburg, VA16,300Petersburg, VA: 14,992 personsPetersburg, VA14,992Winchester, VA: 14,939 personsWinchester, VA14,939Fairfax, VA: 14,296 personsFairfax, VA14,296Salem, VA: 13,289 personsSalem, VA13,289Staunton, VA: 13,198 personsStaunton, VA13,198Waynesboro, VA: 12,028 personsWaynesboro, VA12,028Hopewell, VA: 10,119 personsHopewell, VA10,119Manassas Park, VA: 10,064 personsManassas Park, VA10,064Colonial Heights, VA: 9,310 personsColonial Heights, VA9,310Radford, VA: 8,965 personsRadford, VA8,965Falls Church, VA: 8,323 personsFalls Church, VA8,323Bristol, VA: 7,486 personsBristol, VA7,486Williamsburg, VA: 7,208 personsWilliamsburg, VA7,208Poquoson, VA: 6,789 personsPoquoson, VA6,789Martinsville, VA: 6,167 personsMartinsville, VA6,167
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

RankCities2023
persons		Change on 2022
1Virginia Beach, VA235,121+2.5%
2Richmond, VA129,805+2.6%
3Chesapeake, VA126,611+3.3%
4Norfolk, VA108,164+2%
5Alexandria, VA100,498+2.4%
6Newport News, VA89,588+2.1%
7Hampton, VA67,210+2%
8Suffolk, VA49,980+5.2%
9Roanoke, VA48,592+2%
10Portsmouth, VA44,222+2.3%
11Lynchburg, VA37,907+1.5%
12Leesburg, VA30,013+2.6%
13Harrisonburg, VA26,372+1.7%
14Charlottesville, VA24,723+2%
15Manassas, VA24,120+2.6%
16Blacksburg, VA22,029+3%
17Danville, VA17,743+2.3%
18Fredericksburg, VA16,300+3.7%
19Petersburg, VA14,992+1.1%
20Winchester, VA14,939+1.2%
21Fairfax, VA14,296+4.2%
22Salem, VA13,289+2.1%
23Staunton, VA13,198+2.7%
24Waynesboro, VA12,028+4.5%
25Hopewell, VA10,119+1.8%
26Manassas Park, VA10,064+0.5%
27Colonial Heights, VA9,310+2.6%
28Radford, VA8,965+4.5%
29Falls Church, VA8,323+4%
30Bristol, VA7,486+1.2%
31Williamsburg, VA7,208+5%
32Poquoson, VA6,789+2.7%
33Martinsville, VA6,167+0.7%

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 2023 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.CurrentU20-24. 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, 2023) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24

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, 2023. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 30 Sept. 2026, https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2023. 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, 2023. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2023.

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, 2023 [Dataset]. Available at: https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2023 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{bureau_cities_in_virginia_by_2023,
  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, 2023}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2023. 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.CurrentU20-24. 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, 2023
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.CurrentU20-24
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2023
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/virginia-cities?period=2023.
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.CurrentU20-24. 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 235,121 in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which city has the lowest civilian labor force?

Martinsville, VA, with 6,167 in 2023.

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 2023 and are not ranked.

Civilian labor force: other rankings

Cities in Virginia: more rankings