Pennington Gap is a very small town located in the state of Virginia. With a population of 1,577 people and two associated neighborhoods, Pennington Gap is the 239th largest community in Virginia.Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Pennington Gap is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Pennington Gap is a town of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Pennington Gap who work in sales jobs (15.57%), office and administrative support (11.79%), and healthcare suport services (10.14%). Of important note, Pennington Gap is also a town of artists. Pennington Gap has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Pennington Gap’s character. Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.38% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. Being a small town, Pennington Gap does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.The rate of college-level education in Pennington Gap is quite a bit lower than the national average among all cities of 21.84%: just 10.02% of people here over 25 have a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree. The per capita income in Pennington Gap in 2022 was $20,830, which is low income relative to Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $83,320 for a family of four. Pennington Gap also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 59.52% of its population below the federal poverty line. The people who call Pennington Gap home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Pennington Gap residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Pennington Gap include Irish, English, German, Italian, and Scots-Irish. The most common language spoken in Pennington Gap is English. Other important languages spoken here include Greek and Spanish.
