Virginia

How Virginia ranks among the states

Virginia is richer than most states but only a little less distressed than the typical one. Its typical household earned $92,116 in 2024, 13th highest among the 50 states and D.C. overall. Yet its 2025 bankruptcy rate, 179.7 filings per 100,000 residents (2025 population), was above the national rate and 19th highest (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts). The collections and bankruptcy part is the highest of its four parts, and the jobs part has risen from 21 to 42 since early 2025 (see the economy).

Virginia has ranked in the less distressed half of the states in every quarter since 2006

Which counties and cities in Virginia are the poorest and the most distressed?

Radford, a city in the New River Valley, is the poorest: 27.2% of its residents lived below the poverty line in 2024, the Census Bureau estimates, the highest rate of Virginia’s 133 localities. Virginia has 95 counties and 38 independent cities, and each city stands outside any county, so federal statistics count it as a county of its own and so do we. Petersburg, a city south of Richmond, scores 99 on our County Distress Index, which scores the strain on household budgets in every U.S. county: the most distressed in Virginia and 14th of all 3,144 nationwide. The cities of Hopewell, Franklin, Danville and Emporia are also among the 100 most distressed in the country (see the national list). Goochland County, west of Richmond, is the least distressed, at 1, with the 55th lowest score of all 3,144.

Every county and city, by score

Of Virginia’s 133 localities, 28 score 80 or more, home to 17.1% of its people; 10 of them are in Southside and around Lynchburg, 7 in the far Southwest and 5 on Hampton Roads, and none is in Northern Virginia. At the other end, 33 score under 30, and because they include the big Northern Virginia counties they hold 45.0% of Virginians, more than twice the share.

All 133 Virginia counties and cities, ranked →

Is Virginia a poor state? No, it has less poverty and more income than most

No. In 2024, 9.8% of Virginians lived below the poverty line, tied for 8th lowest among the 50 states and D.C., against 12.1% nationwide. The typical household earned $92,116, 13th highest, against $81,604 for the U.S. (Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates). Income per person, everything residents received divided by their number, came to $77,351, 12th highest (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis). Poverty is far from even across the state (see the poorest places).

Virginia’s minimum wage is set to climb each January through 2028

Virginia’s minimum wage has been $12.77 an hour since Jan. 1, 2026, up from $12.41 in 2025 and well above the federal minimum of $7.25. State law sets the next steps: $13.75 on Jan. 1, 2027, and $15.00 on Jan. 1, 2028 (Code of Virginia § 40.1-28.10).

Virginia’s SNAP count is down from a year earlier

In June 2026, 750,364 Virginians got SNAP, the federal food benefit once called food stamps: 8.5% of the state’s 2025 population, 18th lowest among the 50 states and D.C., against 10.6% nationwide (U.S. Department of Agriculture). In June 2025 the count was 813,228, so it fell by 62,864, or 7.7%. The count was already falling in the months before Nov. 1, 2025, when Virginia ended several SNAP work-rule exemptions (see what changed). The monthly counts jump around from October to December 2025, so we leave those months out of any trend. Fewer people on SNAP doesn’t by itself mean less need. Apply for SNAP through Virginia’s social services department →

Why other sites show a slightly different Virginia poverty rate

Some sites quote the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, whose figures for Virginia differ a little from the ones here. We use the bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, which it makes each year for the state and for every county and city, so all the poverty rates on this page share one source. Benefit programs decide who qualifies with the federal poverty guideline instead, a separate measure (see the questions below). Virginia’s poorest places →

How is Virginia’s economy doing? Unemployment has risen, and federal jobs have fallen

Unemployment is low by national standards, but higher than it was. In August 2026, 3.6% of Virginia’s labor force was out of work and looking for it, tied for 30th highest among the 50 states and D.C.; the U.S. rate was 4.1% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). For a single month, the bureau’s test doesn’t count the gap between Virginia and the U.S. as significant, but Virginia’s yearly average has come in under the nation’s in every year since 1990. Month by month, the state’s rate rose from 2.8% in January 2024 to 3.2% in January 2025 and 3.8% from February through June 2026, before easing to 3.6%.

Federal jobs in Virginia have fallen steeply since January 2025

Virginia had 169,500 federal government jobs in August 2026, 3rd most of the 50 states and D.C. overall. They made up 4.0% of all its jobs, a share topped only by D.C., Hawaii and Maryland (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; August figures are preliminary). That is 26,200 fewer than in January 2025, when the count stood at 195,700: a fall of 13.4%, the 4th steepest in the country after Maryland, D.C. and Alaska. The sharpest single month was October 2025, down 13,200.

Did the federal cuts push up Virginia’s unemployment? Our data can’t settle it. The timing lines up, and the federal loss is large next to the state’s whole job count, which fell 0.8% between January 2025 and August 2026. The federal jobs lost alone equal 0.6% of the jobs Virginia had in January 2025. But job counts are taken where people work. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate counts where they live, so a federal worker in D.C. who lives in Virginia is counted in D.C.’s jobs but in Virginia’s unemployment rate. Virginia’s rate rose 0.4 percentage points over those months. But unemployment also rose in 19 of the other 49 states and D.C., and our data has no count of federal contractors. What changed in the past year →

What changed in Virginia in the past year

1. Jan. 1, 2026

   Virginia’s minimum wage went up

   The state minimum wage rose to $12.77 an hour, from $12.41 in 2025, as the Virginia labor department announced in July 2025; the U.S. Department of Labor’s table of state rates, updated July 1, 2026, lists the new rate. State law already sets the next two increases (see what to watch).

   Virginia labor department, July 28, 2025; U.S. Department of Labor, state minimum wages

2. Dec. 31, 2025

   Extra federal help with marketplace health premiums ran out

   Enhanced premium tax credits, extra federal help since 2021 with the cost of plans bought through Virginia’s Insurance Marketplace, expired at the end of 2025. The original Affordable Care Act credits are still there for people who qualify, and the marketplace told enrollees that some of them may pay higher monthly premiums in 2026. Neither marketplace page counts how many Virginians the change reaches.

   Virginia’s Insurance Marketplace, federal changes; 2026 cost change notice

3. Nov. 25, 2025

   Regulators approved higher Dominion Energy base rates for 2026 and 2027

   The Virginia State Corporation Commission approved a base-rate increase of $565.7 million for Dominion Energy Virginia in 2026, less than the $822 million the utility had asked for, and a smaller one for 2027. For a typical residential customer, the commission said, the approved rates mean monthly increases of $11.24 in 2026 and $2.36 in 2027. The order covers Dominion’s customers only.

   Virginia State Corporation Commission, Nov. 25, 2025

4. Nov. 1, 2025

   SNAP work rules began to cover more adults

   A federal law signed on July 4, 2025, widened SNAP’s work rule, Virginia’s social services department explains. The upper age limit went from 55 to 65, so adults up to 64 may now have to work or take part in a work activity to get benefits for more than three months in three years, and a parent whose dependent child is 14 or older may no longer be exempt. From Nov. 1, 2025, people experiencing homelessness, veterans, and young adults 18 to 24 who had left foster care no longer had an exemption of their own. The department gives no count of Virginians affected.

   Virginia Department of Social Services, SNAP requirements

5. Oct. 2025

   Federal jobs in Virginia took their biggest one-month fall

   Federal employment in Virginia dropped by 13,200 from September to October 2025, the largest monthly fall since January 2025, where our figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics begin. By August 2026 the state had 169,500 federal jobs, 26,200 fewer than in January 2025 (see federal jobs).

   U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Metro Area Employment

Is Virginia expensive to live in? Rent is high, and so is income

Rent runs above the national median, but income runs higher still. Half of Virginia renters paid less than $1,579 a month in the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, 12th highest among the 50 states and D.C., against a U.S. median of $1,413. Twelve months of that rent equal 20.6% of the typical Virginia household’s 2024 income, close to the U.S. figure of 20.8% (our calculation). We hold no prices for groceries, gas or electricity, so we can’t rank Virginia’s overall cost of living.

This share is the one measure in the renters’ part of our State Distress Index. New figures arrive once a year, which is why Virginia’s score can step up or down in a single quarter (see how it ranks).

Are Virginians behind on their bills? Less often than most Americans, though they owe more

Less often than Americans overall. In early 2025, 15.1% of Virginians with credit records had debt 90 or more days late, tied for 27th highest among the 50 states and D.C., against 17.2% nationally, our population-weighted average of the states (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia). Yet Virginians carry more debt than most: $77,060 per person with a credit report at the end of 2025, 9th highest, against $63,200 nationwide (Federal Reserve Bank of New York). All of this is what households owe, not the state government’s debt.

In early 2025, Virginians were less likely than Americans overall to be far behind on any kind of loan or to have a debt in collections

Share of Virginia and U.S. borrowers 90 days or more behind on each kind of loan, and share of people with any debt in collections, first quarter of 2025.

People with a debt in collections

Va. 10.9% U.S. 13.2%

Card borrowers 90+ days late

Va. 11.7% U.S. 13.5%

Car-loan borrowers 90+ days late

Va. 7.8% U.S. 8.5%

Mortgage borrowers 90+ days late

Va. 0.9% U.S. 1.2%

Counting from the highest share among the 50 states and D.C., Virginia ranks 29th on collections, 30th on cards, 25th on car loans and tied for 31st on mortgages. The U.S. bars average the states, with bigger states counting for more.

More Virginia card borrowers are seriously behind than before the pandemic: 9.1% were 90 or more days late at the end of 2019, against 11.7% in early 2025. Collections moved the other way, from 20.8% to 10.9%, over the years when the three big credit bureaus dropped many medical debts from credit reports. A debt removed from a report isn’t necessarily paid. Across the country, people with a medical collection on their report went from about 14% in March 2022 to about 5% in June 2023 (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau). The Urban Institute, a research group, publishes a separate measure. In 2025, 0.8% of Virginians with a credit record had medical debt in collections, 2nd lowest of the 44 places with a published figure, including D.C. The national share was 3.2%.

Bankruptcy in Virginia: filings are rising, and the rate is above the nation’s

Virginians filed 15,959 bankruptcy cases in 2025, the most since 2020: 179.7 for every 100,000 residents (2025 population), 19th highest among the 50 states and D.C., against 166.3 nationwide (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts). Filings rose 9.9% from 2024, a little less than the 11.1% rise across the country, and have gone up every year since 2022, the year with the fewest in the available series. They are still 31.5% below 2019, when Virginians filed 23,297 cases (our calculation).

Chapter 13 made up 39.5% of Virginia’s 2025 cases, against 35.9% nationwide, 16th highest among the 50 states and D.C. overall. Under Chapter 13 a filer pays creditors part of what is owed over three to five years, on a plan the court approves, rather than having property sold. Chapter 7, the more common choice nationwide, wipes out many debts but can mean giving up property the law doesn’t shield.

Foreclosure in Virginia: a home can be sold without a court case

Most Virginia foreclosures never go before a judge. Home loans here are usually secured by a deed of trust, and when a borrower falls behind, the trustee named in it can sell the home at a public sale. For a home the owner lives in, notice of the sale has to be mailed by certified or registered mail at least 60 days ahead (Va. Code § 55.1-321), and the sale has to be advertised in a newspaper; it can take place no sooner than eight days after the first ad and no later than 30 days after the last (Va. Code § 55.1-322).

Once the sale is over, Virginia law gives the former owner no right to buy the home back, and the lender can sue for any balance the sale didn’t cover. Federal mortgage servicing rules generally bar a servicer from starting a foreclosure on a primary home before the loan is more than 120 days behind.

Virginia was awarded $258.4 million from the federal Homeowner Assistance Fund and had used it to help 12,612 households through early 2026 (U.S. Treasury). Our Virginia foreclosure guide lists the help on offer now.

Virginia mortgage complaints: what borrowers tell the CFPB

Since 2012, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has logged 14,635 mortgage complaints from Virginia. Trouble during the payment process, such as how payments, fees and escrow are handled, leads with 3,731; loan modifications, collection and foreclosure come next, with 3,214.

What to watch before the next edition

Five scheduled changes fall before the next edition, listed nearest first, each from the office that set it.

1. Nov. 1, 2026

   Soda comes off the SNAP shopping list

   Starting Nov. 1, SNAP benefits can no longer pay for sweetened carbonated drinks in Virginia, the state’s social services department says; benefit amounts stay the same.

   Virginia Department of Social Services, SNAP

2. Nov. 1, 2026

   Marketplace open enrollment starts, with new state help

   Open enrollment on Virginia’s Insurance Marketplace runs from Nov. 1, 2026, to Jan. 29, 2027. For 2027 plans, a state fund the General Assembly created in a 2026 special session will offer Virginia Premium Savings to people with incomes from 138% to 250% of the federal poverty level.

   Virginia’s Insurance Marketplace, federal changes

3. Nov. 20, 2026

   Virginia’s October unemployment rate

   The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish state unemployment rates for October 2026 on Nov. 20 and for November 2026 on Dec. 18.

   U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, release schedule

4. Jan. 1, 2027

   The minimum wage is set to take its next step

   Under Code of Virginia § 40.1-28.10, the minimum wage is set to rise to $13.75 an hour on Jan. 1, 2027, and to $15.00 on Jan. 1, 2028.

   Code of Virginia § 40.1-28.10

5. Jan. 1, 2027

   Dominion’s second-year rate step

   The second year of Dominion Energy Virginia’s approved base-rate increase, $2.36 a month for a typical residential customer, is set to begin, along with a new rate class for customers using 25 megawatts or more.

   Virginia State Corporation Commission, Nov. 25, 2025

Where Virginia ranks highest and lowest