City · Portsmouth city, Virginia

Portsmouth, Virginia

Portsmouth is a city in Portsmouth city, Virginia, part of the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC metro area. It has 97,190 residents. Portsmouth, Virginia has a quality-of-life score of 19 out of 100 (very low), ranking #12,690 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Virginia it ranks #368 of 375 cities and towns. It ranks best on dentists (high), distance to an emergency room (low) and distance to an Amtrak station (low). It ranks worst on homicide rate (high), firearm deaths (high) and property crime rate (high).

19Very low

Quality-of-life score: #12,690 of 15,651 cities and towns
Virginia: #368 of 375 in VA
Population: 97,190 (2020-2024)
Land area: 33 mi²
Density: 2,918.5 /mi²
FIPS code: 5164000

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 73 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.

Safety2#15,300/15,637
Economy21#12,282/15,631
Housing14#12,843/14,977
Health7#14,507/15,609
Healthcare50#7,846/15,650
Environment96#687/15,453
Education35#10,188/15,649
Infrastructure42#9,004/15,650
Community30#11,029/15,651
Leisure & amenities14#13,490/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Portsmouth, Virginia ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Portsmouth city 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

Dentists · high175 /100k
100/100Virginia 76 /100kUnited States 75 /100k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstitutePortsmouth city value
Distance to an emergency room · low2.4 mi
98/100Virginia 5.8 miUnited States 5.5 miJul 2026Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesPortsmouth city value
Distance to an Amtrak station · low5 mi
97/100Virginia 14 miUnited States 43 mi2026Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauPortsmouth city value
Distance to an airport · low10 mi
91/100Virginia 32 miUnited States 33 mi2025Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauPortsmouth city value
New business applications · high19.7 /1k
89/100Virginia 15.6 /1kUnited States 16.6 /1k2025U.S. Census BureauPortsmouth city value
Natural hazard risk · low11.9
81/100Virginia 17.92025Federal Emergency Management AgencyPortsmouth city value

Weaknesses

Homicide rate · high20.7 /100k
1/100Virginia 4.3 /100kUnited States 4.8 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataPortsmouth city value
Firearm deaths · high35.1 /100k
1/100Virginia 12.4 /100kUnited States 12.1 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataPortsmouth city value
Property crime rate · high3,227 /100k
1/100Virginia 1,354 /100kUnited States 1,535 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationPortsmouth city value
Primary care shortage · high20.0
1/100Virginia 6.6United States 6.2Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationPortsmouth city value
Violent crime rate · high764 /100k
2/100Virginia 206 /100kUnited States 328 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationPortsmouth city value
Drug overdose deaths · high39.3 /100k
3/100Virginia 12.0 /100kUnited States 18.4 /100kMar 2025–Feb 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataPortsmouth city value

Trends

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

Broadband subscriptionsImproving
79.6% (2015-2019) → 88.0% (2020-2024)
+8.4 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Home price to income ratioWorsening
3.3× (2015-2019) → 4.1× (2020-2024)
+25%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×
Rent-burdened householdsWorsening
55.5% (2015-2019) → 59.7% (2020-2024)
+4.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Child poverty rateImproving
28.9% (2015-2019) → 24.9% (2020-2024)
−4 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
New homes permittedWorsening
2.0 /1k (2021) → 1.7 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−17%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Median household incomeImproving
$52,175 (2015-2019) → $60,491 (2020-2024)
+16%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604

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, Portsmouth, Virginia improved on 5 of 15 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 8 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.

Improved5

Uninsured−3.1 points11.7% → 8.6%
Child poverty−4 points28.9% → 24.9%
Broadband+8.4 points79.6% → 88.0%
Bachelor's++2.4 points21.9% → 24.3%
Household income+16%$52,175 → $60,491

Declined1

Price / income+0.8×3.3× → 4.1×

All 15 measures

Change of every measure of Portsmouth, Virginia between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	23.1 min2015-2019	23.7 min2020-2024	+0.5 min	Within the margin of error	41%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.9%2015-2019	24.3%2020-2024	+2.4 points	Improved	47%
Broadband subscriptions	79.6%2015-2019	88.0%2020-2024	+8.4 points	Improved	51%
Child poverty rate	28.9%2015-2019	24.9%2020-2024	−4 points	Improved	65%
Effective property tax rate	1.18%2015-2019	0.95%2020-2024	−0.2 points	Little change	63%
High school diploma or higher	88.3%2015-2019	89.0%2020-2024	+0.8 points	Within the margin of error	43%
Home price to income ratio	3.3×2015-2019	4.1×2020-2024	+0.8×	Declined	31%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4322015-2019	0.4492020-2024	+0.017	Within the margin of error	36%
Median household income	$52,1752015-2019	$60,4912020-2024	+16%	Improved	25%
Poverty rate	16.8%2015-2019	17.3%2020-2024	+0.5 points	Within the margin of error	38%
Public transit commuters	1.8%2015-2019	1.6%2020-2024	−0.2 points	Within the margin of error	23%
Rent as share of income	33.2%2015-2019	35.4%2020-2024	+2.2 points	Within the margin of error	39%
Rent-burdened households	55.5%2015-2019	59.7%2020-2024	+4.2 points	Within the margin of error	40%
Unemployment rate	7.8%2015-2019	6.6%2020-2024	−1.2 points	Within the margin of error	72%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	11.7%2015-2019	8.6%2020-2024	−3.1 points	Improved	77%

“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 Portsmouth, Virginia five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Portsmouth, 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, Portsmouth, Virginia itself moved −4.8 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

97,190 residents

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

40,288 households (±452)

Portsmouth, Virginia
Virginia share

Under $25k20%7,897
$25k–50k22%8,901
$50k–75k19%7,653

Homes

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

Owners and renters

40,288 households (±452)

Portsmouth, Virginia
Virginia share

Own58%23,344
Rent42%16,944

Biggest shift since 2015–2019: Rent (−3.0 points).

Table view

Getting to work

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

How people get to work

45,445 workers (±1,111)

Portsmouth, Virginia
Virginia share

Drive alone71%32,299
Carpool12%5,594
Public transit1.6%†726

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 Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC

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 Portsmouth city, the county holding most of Portsmouth's residents.

Portsmouth city has 1,597 employer establishments, 165 for every 10,000 residents (0.66× the US rate of 248; 0.68× Virginia's), with 25,089 paid employees at an average annual pay of $54,921. The Census Bureau also counts 6,386 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 1,597; 6,386 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 165; US 248 · Virginia 241
Paid employees: 25,089
Average annual pay: $54,921; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Portsmouth city by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Restaurants and other eating places	148	15.3	0.83×About typical	2,351	$19,434	38
Ambulatory health care services	123	12.7	0.61×Fewer than typical	2,002	$42,199	309
Specialty trade contractors	99	10.2	0.66×Fewer than typical	1,212	$65,570	332
Limited-service restaurants	85	8.8	1.09×About typical	1,501	$18,919	27
Religious organizations	74	7.6	1.37×More than typical	381	$22,150	—
Lessors of real estate	70	7.2	0.59×Fewer than typical	270	$43,759	426
Automotive repair and maintenance	55	5.7	1.13×About typical	378	$54,963	104
Full-service restaurants	54	5.6	0.72×Fewer than typical	705	$20,979	5
Truck transportation	47	4.8	0.96×About typical	383	$59,345	165
Grocery and convenience stores	46	4.7	1.60×More than typical	891	$23,236	15
Services to buildings and dwellings	46	4.7	0.70×Fewer than typical	583	$34,494	512
Building equipment contractors	41	4.2	0.70×Fewer than typical	638	$66,382	70

Rank places for an industry Open Portsmouth city

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

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 97,030 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 $888.6M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Portsmouth, Virginia: $9,143 per resident (US $1,995).

Obligations: $888.6M; −2.4% vs FY2025
Per resident: $9,143; US $1,995
Sole-source: 8.4%; US 30%
Single offer: 13%; 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

Department of the Navy$692.6M78%
Defense Health Agency$80.4M9.1%
U.S. Coast Guard$44.4M5.0%
Defense Logistics Agency$24.3M2.7%
Maritime Administration$19.5M2.2%
Department of the Air Force$18.5M2.1%
Defense Information Systems Agency$4.8M0.5%
Federal Acquisition Service$2.3M0.3%

Top recipients

METRO MACHINE CORP.$182.5M21%
MEB GENERAL CONTRACTORS INC$171.6M19%
GENERAL DYNAMICS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INC.$79.7M9.0%
JJR SOLUTIONS LLC$23.5M2.6%
SAW EASTERN JV, LLC$22.8M2.6%

Spending by fiscal year

598.6MFY2017
879MFY2018
734.3MFY2019
1BFY2020
737.9MFY2021
1BFY2022
847MFY2023
1.3B

Top industries (NAICS)

Ship and boat building · 3366$259M29%
Other heavy and civil engineering construction · 2379$180.1M20%
Architectural, engineering, and related services · 5413$117.3M13%
Scientific research and development services · 5417$45.1M5.1%
General medical and surgical hospitals · 6221$40.4M4.5%
Offices of physicians · 6211

Largest awards whose ZIP code lies mostly in Portsmouth, Virginia

DB REPAIR BERTHS 40 AND 41, NORFOLK NAVAL SHIPYARD, PORTSMOUTH, VA$229.7M
AECOM TECHNICAL SERVICES, INC.· Portsmouth city, VA· Construction & real property· Jul 29, 2022 – May 12, 2026· N4008522F5863
REPAIR/RENEWAL- CONSTRUCTION$211.5M
J & J MAINTENANCE INC· Portsmouth city, VA· Construction & real property· Sep 29, 2022 – Apr 10, 2026· W912DY22F0358
P-678, DRY DOCK 8 SALTWATER SYSTEM$201.8M
MEB GENERAL CONTRACTORS INC· Portsmouth city, VA· Construction & real property· Sep 23, 2022 – Dec 15, 2025· N4008522C0047
TYCOM BASE WORK

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 6, 2026, loaded Oct 6, 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 Portsmouth, Virginia, so they do not add up across cities.

Portsmouth, Virginia's figures are part of those of Portsmouth city, VA ($888.6M in FY2026), never added to them: 100% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Portsmouth is mostly in Portsmouth city.

See federal money in Portsmouth city

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.

Portsmouth, Virginia is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Robert C. "Bobby" ScottD-VA-3 · 100% of residentsWith party 100%Missed 0.6%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

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

Portsmouth city37100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC69

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
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
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/5164000

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends