City safety & data profile

BristolVA

Bristol, VA is a 17K-resident city in Bristol city with a median household income of $50,404.

Bristol city, Virginia. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Bristol, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Bristol has a population larger than 35% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $184,100.

Data updated 2026-09-04

17K
Population (place)
Bottom 36%
By size
$50,404
Median income (place)
$184,100
Median home (place)
18%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Bristol

Bristol posts a median household income higher than 10% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Bottom 11%
by median income, US cities

Where Bristol income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$50,404 Bottom 10% higher than 10% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Bristol $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. 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, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in VA

Population among 102 VA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Virginia Beach is the largest VA city on this list; Great Falls leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in VA

Median household income among the same 102-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Great Falls posts the highest place-level median income in VA; Virginia Beach is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Bristol, VA beyond the headline numbers

Bristol sits inside Bristol city, Virginia, at roughly 36.60°N, -82.19°W. Population 17,141, $50,404 median household income. Median home value $184,100, median rent $801. Poverty rate 18%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

18% of Bristol, VA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in Bristol costs roughly 3.7 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.

Remote work covers 11.6% of Bristol workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, coronary heart disease departs furthest from its peer median: 8.8% in Bristol, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,757 cities reporting that measure.

Public transit carries 0.1% of Bristol workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

At 43.4 years, Bristol's median age is in the oldest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Bristol from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
17,141
Bristol · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$50,404
-44% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$184,100
-55% vs avg
Median Age (place)
43.4
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Bristol city): Bristol's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
17K-5%
Median Income
$50,404+56%
Median Home Value
$184,100+66%
Poverty Rate
18%-14%
Unemployment
6.3%-50%

Economics

Economics indicators for Bristol, VA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$801/mo
Poverty Rate
18% +45% vs avg
Unemployment 6.3%
Bachelor's Degree+ 24.8%
Work From Home 11.6%
Public Transit 0.1%

Population

White 85.1%
African American 5.8%
Asian 0.5%
Two or More Ethnicities 5.8%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
41%
Obesity
39.4%
Short Sleep Duration
36.5%
Physical Inactivity
30.3%
Frequent Mental Distress
18.8%
Current Smoking
18.1%
Frequent Physical Distress
17.1%
Diabetes
15%
Binge Drinking
13.7%
Current Asthma
11.5%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 61.2%
Annual Checkup 79.5%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
10%
Coronary Heart Disease
8.8%
Stroke
4.6%

What alerts and safety updates affect Bristol?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Bristol right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet VA-BRISTOL-VA · Bristol

Bristol: 13 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-ACTIVE 13 on record
  • WX-LED 85% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Victoria

Tagged alert mix: Bristol

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 13 tagged notices on record for Bristol.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: Victoria, TX (13 tagged · Δ0)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Bristol; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Virginia state hubs · Methodology

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (13 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Victoria, TX 13 alerts Phoenix, AZ 15 alerts California, MD 15 alerts El Paso, TX 16 alerts

Read with this city profile

Understanding Weather Alerts

Watch vs warning vs advisory, how NOAA labels map to action
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Bristol, VA? ▼
Bristol, VA has a population of 17,141 people, located in Bristol city, Virginia.
What is the median household income in Bristol? ▼
The median household income in Bristol, VA is $50,404 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 18%.
What is the median home value in Bristol? ▼
The median home value in Bristol, VA is $184,100. Median rent is $801/month.
What are the top health concerns in Bristol? ▼
The top health indicators in Bristol include High Blood Pressure (41%), Obesity (39.4%), Short Sleep Duration (36.5%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Bristol? ▼
The median age in Bristol, VA is 43.4 years. 24.8% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Bristol, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside VA (18% here).

Lynwood, CA 18% Lufkin, TX 18% Desert Hot Springs, CA 18% Chamblee, GA 18%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside VA ($50,404 here).

Fredonia, NY $50,433 Port Huron, MI $50,366 Vermillion, SD $50,456 Bloomington, IN $50,465

Compare Bristol with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Bristol, TN 27K Elizabethton, TN 14K Johnson City, TN 66K Kingsport, TN 53K Boone, NC 18K Greeneville, TN 15K Lenoir, NC 18K Morganton, NC 17K
All cities in Virginia → Compare Bristol vs Bristol → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Bristol's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Bristol area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Bristol against Virginia peers on any ranking lens. Explore Virginia

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Bristol city) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.