City safety & data profile
SterlingVA
Sterling, VA is a 28K-resident city in Loudoun County with a median household income of $123,303.
Loudoun County, Virginia. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Sterling, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Sterling has a population larger than 60% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $526,000.
Data updated 2026-09-03
- 28K
- Population (place)
- Top 40%
- By size
- $123,303
- Median income (place)
- $526,000
- Median home (place)
- 8%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Sterling
Sterling posts a median household income higher than 84% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- Top 16%
- by median income, US cities
Where Sterling income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$123,303 Top 16% higher than 84% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
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.
- Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach, VA
454,808 residents
- Norfolk
Norfolk, VA
238,005 residents
- Chesapeake
Chesapeake, VA
235,429 residents
- Richmond
Richmond, VA
226,610 residents
- Arlington
Arlington, VA
207,627 residents
- Newport News
Newport News, VA
186,247 residents
- Alexandria 159,467
Alexandria, VA
159,467 residents
- Hampton 137,148
Hampton, VA
137,148 residents
- Roanoke 100,011
Roanoke, VA
100,011 residents
- Portsmouth 96,201
Portsmouth, VA
96,201 residents
What this shows Virginia Beach is the largest VA city on this list; Great Falls leads median income.
Highest median incomes in VA
Median household income among the same 102-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Great Falls
Great Falls, VA
$250,001 median
- McLean
McLean, VA
$250,001 median
- Wolf Trap
Wolf Trap, VA
$250,001 median
- Bull Run
Bull Run, VA
$241,933 median
- Broadlands
Broadlands, VA
$241,042 median
- Lowes Island
Lowes Island, VA
$220,833 median
- Vienna
Vienna, VA
$216,953 median
- Fort Hunt
Fort Hunt, VA
$216,038 median
- Dranesville
Dranesville, VA
$214,688 median
- Fairfax Stat…
Fairfax Station, VA
$212,224 median
What this shows Great Falls posts the highest place-level median income in VA; Virginia Beach is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Sterling, VA beyond the headline numbers
Sterling sits inside Loudoun County, Virginia, at roughly 39.01°N, -77.43°W. Population 27,822, $123,303 median household income. Median home value $526,000, median rent $2,138. Poverty rate 8%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
At 8%, poverty in Sterling, VA runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.
A median home in Sterling runs about 4.3 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.
15.7% of Sterling workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, lack of health insurance departs furthest from its peer median: 15.6% in Sterling, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Sterling's median age is 35.3 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Sterling 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.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Loudoun County): Sterling'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.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 8% -35% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 3.7% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 35.4% |
| Work From Home | 15.7% |
| Public Transit | 1% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Sterling?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Sterling right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet VA-STERLING-VA · Sterling
Sterling: 1 tagged alert; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-TRACE 1 on record
- WX-LED 100% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Houston
Tagged alert mix: Sterling
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
1
What this shows 1 tagged notice on record for Sterling.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Houston, TX (1 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Sterling; 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 (1 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 5
What is the population of Sterling, VA? ▼
What is the median household income in Sterling? ▼
What is the median home value in Sterling? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Sterling? ▼
What is the median age in Sterling? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Sterling, 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% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside VA ($123,303 here).
Compare Sterling 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.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Sterling'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 Sterling 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 Sterling 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 (Loudoun 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.