Harrisonburg is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Virginia. With a population of 51,082 people and 16 associated neighborhoods, Harrisonburg is the 17th largest community in Virginia.Harrisonburg is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Harrisonburg is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Harrisonburg who work in food service (10.01%), sales jobs (7.99%), and teaching (7.84%). Also of interest is that Harrisonburg has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 8.64% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. In addition, Harrisonburg is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on local Harrisonburg culture, lifestyle and entertainment options. Harrisonburg really pulses to the beat of the academic calendar. In Harrisonburg every fall, returning students reinvigorate the community, who you will notice are all over town, buying groceries, out with friends, and getting acquainted or re-acquainted with each other and Harrisonburg. One of the beneficial effects that colleges provide is that they tend to be lasting institutions that deliver direct economic benefits to the local economy in the form of such things as jobs for faculty and staff, and spending by students. Harrisonburg benefits directly from this. Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Harrisonburg spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 17.97 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.The education level of Harrisonburg citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 36.74% of adults in Harrisonburg have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree. The per capita income in Harrisonburg in 2022 was $27,957, which is lower middle income relative to Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $111,828 for a family of four. However, Harrisonburg contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Harrisonburg is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Harrisonburg home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Harrisonburg residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Harrisonburg also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 23.09% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Harrisonburg include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Swiss. Harrisonburg also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 17.33%. The most common language spoken in Harrisonburg is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Slavic languages.
