Census-designated place · Prince William County, Virginia

Gainesville, Virginia

Gainesville is a census-designated place in Prince William County, Virginia, part of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro area. It has 18,196 residents. Gainesville, Virginia has a quality-of-life score of 88 out of 100 (very high), ranking #1,823 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Virginia it ranks #119 of 375 cities and towns. It ranks best on child poverty rate (low), median household income (high) and broadband subscriptions (high). It ranks worst on average commute time (high), drought exposure (high) and mammography screening (low).

88Very high

Quality-of-life score: #1,823 of 15,651 cities and towns
Virginia: #119 of 375 in VA
Population: 18,196 (2020-2024)
Land area: 10 mi²
Density: 1,799.2 /mi²
FIPS code: 5130176

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 75 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety64#5,667/15,637
Economy99#111/15,631
Housing46#8,051/14,977
Health94#956/15,609
Healthcare48#8,187/15,650
Environment89#1,623/15,453
Education94#936/15,649
Infrastructure89#1,743/15,650
Community76#3,681/15,651
Leisure & amenities27#11,358/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Gainesville, Virginia ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Prince William County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Child poverty rate · low2.6%
98/100Virginia 11.8%United States 15.5%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B17001High uncertainty
Median household income · high$174,410
98/100Virginia $92,116United States $81,6042020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B19013
Broadband subscriptions · high99.3%
98/100Virginia 91.0%United States 91.0%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B28002
Injury deaths · low46 /100k
97/100Virginia 78 /100kUnited States 87 /100k2019-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstitutePrince William County value
Distance to an Amtrak station · low5 mi
96/100Virginia 14 miUnited States 43 mi2026Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauPrince William County value
Food environment index · high9.4
96/100Virginia 8.9United States 7.62019 & 2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstitutePrince William County value

Weaknesses

Average commute time · high34.5 min
7/100Virginia 27.3 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013
Drought exposure · high84%
9/100Virginia 70%United States 43%Oct 2025–Sep 2026National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), USDA and NOAAPrince William County value
Mammography screening · low37.0%
11/100Virginia 47.0%United States 46.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstitutePrince William County value
Public libraries · low0.2 /10k
14/100Virginia 0.4 /10kUnited States 0.5 /10k2024Institute of Museum and Library ServicesPrince William County value
Primary care shortage · high16.0
14/100Virginia 6.6United States 6.2Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationPrince William County value
Social associations · low6.6 /10k
16/100Virginia 11.1 /10kUnited States 9.1 /10k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstitutePrince William County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
17,287 (2015-2019) → 18,196 (2020-2024)
+5.3%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Rent-burdened householdsWorsening
35.0% (2015-2019) → 54.0% (2020-2024)
+19 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Rent as share of incomeWorsening
24.4% (2015-2019) → 31.7% (2020-2024)
+7.3 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%
Median household incomeImproving
$141,609 (2015-2019) → $174,410 (2020-2024)
+23%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Income inequality (Gini index)Worsening
0.318 (2015-2019) → 0.379 (2020-2024)
+19%5 yearsCensus table B19083US 0.482 → 0.483
Average commute timeImproving
42.1 min (2015-2019) → 34.5 min (2020-2024)
−18%5 yearsCensus table B08013US 26.9 min → 26.4 min

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Gainesville, Virginia improved on 2 of 13 measures with a comparison and declined on 3. 7 moved within the margin of error and 1 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved2

Commute−7.6 min42.1 min → 34.5 min
Household income+23%$141,609 → $174,410

Declined3

Inequality+0.0610.318 → 0.379
Rent / income+7.3 points24.4% → 31.7%
Price / income+0.6×3.5× → 4.1×

All 13 measures

Change of every measure of Gainesville, Virginia between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	42.1 min2015-2019	34.5 min2020-2024	−7.6 min	Improved	96%
Bachelor's degree or higher	55.7%2015-2019	58.0%2020-2024	+2.3 points	Within the margin of error	45%
Broadband subscriptions	96.4%2015-2019	99.3%2020-2024	+2.9 points	Within the margin of error	19%
Effective property tax rate	1.05%2015-2019	0.68%2020-2024	−0.4 points	Little change	81%
High school diploma or higher	95.7%2015-2019	95.9%2020-2024	+0.2 points	Within the margin of error	35%
Home price to income ratio	3.5×2015-2019	4.1×2020-2024	+0.6×	Declined	41%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.3182015-2019	0.3792020-2024	+0.061	Declined	12%
Median household income	$141,6092015-2019	$174,4102020-2024	+23%	Improved	40%
Poverty rate	3.6%2015-2019	4.0%2020-2024	+0.4 points	Within the margin of error	39%
Rent as share of income	24.4%2015-2019	31.7%2020-2024	+7.3 points	Declined	14%
Rent-burdened households	35.0%2015-2019	54.0%2020-2024	+19 points	Within the margin of error	9%
Unemployment rate	3.7%2015-2019	2.6%2020-2024	−1.2 points	Within the margin of error	72%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	5.1%2015-2019	4.2%2020-2024	−0.9 points	Within the margin of error	57%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Gainesville, Virginia five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Gainesville, Virginia in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Gainesville, Virginia itself moved −9.3 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

18,196 residents (±1,114)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

5,926 households (±256)

Gainesville, Virginia
Virginia share

Under $25k6.2%†365
$25k–50k7.4%†436
$50k–75k

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

5,926 households (±256)

Gainesville, Virginia
Virginia share

Own84%4,951
Rent16%975

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

9,580 workers (±648)

Gainesville, Virginia
Virginia share

Drive alone64%6,162
Carpool7.6%731
Public transit1.3%†121

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Prince William County, the county holding most of Gainesville's residents.

Prince William County has 9,286 employer establishments, 189 for every 10,000 residents (0.76× the US rate of 248; 0.78× Virginia's), with 120,091 paid employees at an average annual pay of $55,828. The Census Bureau also counts 53,892 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 9,286; 53,892 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 189; US 248 · Virginia 241
Paid employees: 120,091
Average annual pay: $55,828; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Prince William County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Specialty trade contractors	1,011	20.6	1.33×More than typical	13,872	$67,668	4,871
Ambulatory health care services	772	15.7	0.75×Fewer than typical	8,361	$64,890	2,221
Restaurants and other eating places	720	14.7	0.80×Fewer than typical	14,193	$22,223	358
Lessors of real estate	425	8.6	0.70×Fewer than typical	1,230	$64,323	3,310
Computer systems design and related services	413	8.4	1.94×More than typical	3,474	$111,947	748
Services to buildings and dwellings	397	8.1	1.20×About typical	2,894	$42,448	3,285
Construction of buildings	384	7.8	1.03×About typical	1,929	$67,389	2,182
Management, scientific and technical consulting	372	7.6	1.13×About typical	4,262	$85,605	2,006
Limited-service restaurants	369	7.5	0.94×About typical	7,096	$20,007	111
Building equipment contractors	297	6	1.00×About typical	4,254	$72,609	994
Building finishing contractors	292	5.9	1.56×More than typical	2,892	$46,066	2,041
Full-service restaurants	279	5.7	0.74×Fewer than typical	5,960	$25,427	177

Rank places for an industry Open Prince William County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 491,396 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $27.1M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Gainesville, Virginia: $1,489 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $27.1M; +109% vs FY2025
Per resident: $1,489; US $1,994
Sole-source: 12%; US 30%
Single offer: 2.2%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

U.S. Special Operations Command$10M37%
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency$8.5M31%
Department of the Air Force$4.6M17%
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration$972.2K3.6%
Defense Logistics Agency$685.3K2.5%
Federal Highway Administration$615.6K2.3%
Transportation Security Administration$463.7K1.7%
Federal Bureau of Investigation$459.8K1.7%

Top recipients

OMNI FED LLC$13.2M49%
NEXTECH SOLUTIONS LLC$10M37%
TOXCEL LLC$1.6M5.9%
FANNON PETROLEUM SERVICES, INC.$797.2K2.9%
ALLIED ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL, INC.$482.2K1.8%

Spending by fiscal year

17.3MFY2017
15.8MFY2018
17.3MFY2019
94.8MFY2020
90.4MFY2021
76.3MFY2022
16.5MFY2023
17.7M

Top industries (NAICS)

Computer systems design and related services · 5415$10.7M39%
Other miscellaneous manufacturing · 3399$10M37%
Scientific research and development services · 5417$4.7M17%
Management, scientific, and technical consulting services · 5416$1.1M3.9%
Petroleum and coal products manufacturing · 3241$680.1K2.5%

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Gainesville, Virginia, so they do not add up across cities.

Gainesville, Virginia's figures are part of those of Prince William County, VA ($2.3B in FY2026), never added to them: 1.2% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Gainesville is mostly in Prince William County.

See federal money in Prince William County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Gainesville, Virginia is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

Senate

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Prince William County84100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV86

Other cities and towns in Prince William County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/5130176

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends