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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-LORTON-VA · Lorton, VA 21,961 pop · income 92nd pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Lorton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lorton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Chillicothe · lowest
49,193
Chillicothe · lowest
49,193 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #1
Citrus Park · near
136,653
Citrus Park · near
136,653 median HH income
85.2% of the leader · rank #2
West Nyack · near
136,696
West Nyack · near
136,696 median HH income
85.2% of the leader · rank #3
Lorton · this city
136,719
Lorton · this city
136,719 median HH income
85.2% of the leader · rank #4
Oso · near
136,735
Oso · near
136,735 median HH income
85.2% of the leader · rank #5
Glen Head · near
136,786
Glen Head · near
136,786 median HH income
85.3% of the leader · rank #6
Rose Hill CDP… · highest
160,426
Rose Hill CDP… · highest
160,426 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Lorton on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 21,961.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Lorton lands in the 92nd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
92nd
percentile, household income
88th
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Lorton, VA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 21,961 residents in Lorton, a small city within Virginia. Lorton households earn a median of $136,719 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 6.9%. Home values in Lorton run a median of $583,900, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. 58.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 5 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Virginia at 101.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,369 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $235 across Virginia, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 24.3 minutes, with 57.9% driving alone and 22.3% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 33.3 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lorton's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lorton, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Lorton?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Woodlawn CDP (Fairfax County) (21,828 residents, $87,897 income); Montclair (22,295 residents, $143,357 income); Rose Hill CDP (Fairfax County) (21,484 residents, $160,426 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Chillicothe, OH (21,958 residents); Mililani Mauka, HI (21,967 residents); Ozark, MO (21,953 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
How far does income reach against housing in Lorton?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
What does the journey to work look like in Lorton?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 57.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 24.3 minutes.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 58.2% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Top-decile income · poverty 6.9% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
B-
City profile score · Lorton, VA
68/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Household income A+
$136,719
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
58.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C-
6.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
101.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Lorton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 92/100 (A+) · $136,719
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 58.2%
Poverty rate: 53/100 (C-) · 6.9%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
How does Lorton compare to other US cities?
Where Lorton sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income92% higher than other cities
Home value88% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lorton against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Virginia only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Virginia-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Lorton near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lorton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lorton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#90 of 558
84th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#94 of 567
83rd percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#260 of 616
57th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#103 of 618
83rd percentile in Virginia
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Virginia only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
92nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Lorton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$583,90012th percentilemore affordable than 12% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Lorton's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,447 of 15,516
More affordable than 26% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,200 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.3×, Lorton sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,447 of 15,516 and #2,200 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$136,719Lorton, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lorton, VA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Lorton, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)58.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
21,961
Median Income
$136,719
Median Home Value
$583,900
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
6.9%
Labor force participation
62.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
58.2%
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
24.3 minutes
Drive Alone
57.9%
Carpool
10.6%
Public Transit
5.3%
Walk
2.5%
Work from Home
22.3%
Other
1.4%
Based on 11,131 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Virginia statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $235
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Virginia at $235 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Virginia statewide averages, not a meter reading for Lorton. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Virginia's BEA cost-of-living index is 101.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Lorton is $1,369/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Virginia statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Virginia statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Lorton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lorton compares to similar-size Virginia cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.