City safety & data profile

ChesterVA

Chester, VA is a 21K-resident city in Chesterfield County with a median household income of $95,104.

Chesterfield County, Virginia. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Chester, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Chester has a population larger than 47% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $327,200.

Data updated 2026-09-05

21K
Population (place)
Bottom 48%
By size
$95,104
Median income (place)
$327,200
Median home (place)
8.1%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Chester

Chester posts a median household income higher than 65% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Top 35%
by median income, US cities

Where Chester income ranks nationally

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

$95,104 Top 35% higher than 65% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Chester $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 Chester, VA beyond the headline numbers

Chester sits inside Chesterfield County, Virginia, at roughly 37.36°N, -77.44°W. Population 20,987, $95,104 median household income. Median home value $327,200, median rent $1,603. Poverty rate 8.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

At 8.1%, poverty in Chester, VA runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.

The median home in Chester costs roughly 3.4 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.

17.4% of Chester workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 13.8% in Chester, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Chester 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)
20,987
Chester · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$95,104
+6% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$327,200
-21% vs avg
Median Age (place)
38.7
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Chesterfield County): Chester'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
378K+18%
Median Income
$101,931+41%
Median Home Value
$366,000+62%
Poverty Rate
7.1%+6%
Unemployment
4.6%-37%

Economics

Economics indicators for Chester, VA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,603/mo
Poverty Rate
8.1% -35% vs avg
Unemployment 2.5%
Bachelor's Degree+ 33.8%
Work From Home 17.4%
Public Transit 0.8%

Population

White 57.2%
African American 22.4%
Asian 1.6%
Two or More Ethnicities 2.4%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Obesity
37.3%
High Blood Pressure
37%
Short Sleep Duration
35.7%
Physical Inactivity
24.2%
Frequent Mental Distress
17.2%
Binge Drinking
13.8%
Frequent Physical Distress
13.4%
Diabetes
12.7%
Current Smoking
12.7%
Current Asthma
11%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 66.1%
Annual Checkup 78.9%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
9.3%
Coronary Heart Disease
6%
Stroke
3.3%

What alerts and safety updates affect Chester?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet VA-CHESTER-VA · Chester

Chester: 23 tagged alerts; lead category Environment Agency flood warning.

  • VOL-ACTIVE 23 on record
  • MIX-LED 35% uk-floods
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • NEAR-PEER 16 · El Paso

Tagged alert mix: Chester

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 23 tagged notices on record for Chester.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: El Paso, TX (16 tagged · Δ7)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Chester; 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 (23 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

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

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Chester in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Chester, VA? ▼
Chester, VA has a population of 20,987 people, located in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
What is the median household income in Chester? ▼
The median household income in Chester, VA is $95,104 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 8.1%.
What is the median home value in Chester? ▼
The median home value in Chester, VA is $327,200. Median rent is $1,603/month.
What are the top health concerns in Chester? ▼
The top health indicators in Chester include Obesity (37.3%), High Blood Pressure (37%), Short Sleep Duration (35.7%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Chester? ▼
The median age in Chester, VA is 38.7 years. 33.8% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside VA (8.1% here).

San Jose, CA 8.1% Renton, WA 8.1% Edmond, OK 8.1% Layton, UT 8.1%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside VA ($95,104 here).

Georgetown, TX $95,062 Green, OH $95,047 Crowley, TX $95,030 Washington, IL $95,179

Compare Chester 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

Colonial Heights, VA 18K Meadowbrook, VA 18K Petersburg, VA 32K Hopewell, VA 22K Richmond, VA 227K Bon Air, VA 16K Highland Springs, VA 16K Brandermill, VA 13K
All cities in Virginia → Compare Chester vs Colonial Heights → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Chester'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 Chester 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 Chester 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 (Chesterfield County) 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.