The 10 Dumbest Places In Virginia For 2024


The dumbest places in Virginia are Emporia and Galax for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Old Dominion have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.

While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.

We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in Virginia have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.

A recent study we published found that Virginia is the 9th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 101.

But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Virginia are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


Dumbest Cities In Virginia Map

Don’t freak out.

Some places are just smarter than others, but that says nothing about the character of the people living there. It’s another data point a real estate agent would never tell you.

For this ranking, we only looked at cities with populations greater than 5,000, leaving us 62 cities in Virginia to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more Virginia reading, check out:

The 10 Dumbest Places In Virginia For 2024

Emporia, VA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 5,680
% Adult High School Dropout: 23.0%
% Highly Educated: 16.0%
More on Emporia: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Galax, VA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

2
/10
Population: 6,687
% Adult High School Dropout: 20.0%
% Highly Educated: 17.0%
More on Galax: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Dumfries, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Leonard J. DeFrancisci | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10
Population: 5,697
% Adult High School Dropout: 24.0%
% Highly Educated: 19.0%
More on Dumfries: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Front Royal, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Jason Riedy | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 15,064
% Adult High School Dropout: 16.0%
% Highly Educated: 18.0%
More on Front Royal: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Hopewell, VA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 23,046
% Adult High School Dropout: 14.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Hopewell: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Danville, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Miguel Gereda | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 42,507
% Adult High School Dropout: 16.0%
% Highly Educated: 19.0%
More on Danville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Buena Vista, VA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 6,639
% Adult High School Dropout: 19.0%
% Highly Educated: 21.0%
More on Buena Vista: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Vinton, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Warfieldian | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 8,045
% Adult High School Dropout: 15.0%
% Highly Educated: 19.0%
More on Vinton: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Richlands, VA

Source: Wikipedia User Brian Stansberry | CC BY 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 5,266
% Adult High School Dropout: 13.0%
% Highly Educated: 16.0%
More on Richlands: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Marion, VA

Source: Wikipedia User DwayneP (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 5,722
% Adult High School Dropout: 17.0%
% Highly Educated: 22.0%
More on Marion: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Old Dominion

We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.

So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.

In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in Virginia:

  • % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
  • % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)

We got the data from the U.S. Census 2018-2022 American Community Survey.

Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in Virginia from dumbest to brightest.

For this ranking, we used every Virginia city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2024, and it’s our tenth time ranking the dumbest cities in Virginia.

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

If you’re measuring the locations in Virginia where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.

The dumbest cities in Virginia are Emporia, Galax, Dumfries, Front Royal, Hopewell, Danville, Buena Vista, Vinton, Richlands, and Marion.

If you’re also curious enough, here are the smartest places in Virginia, according to science:

  1. Blacksburg
  2. Falls Church
  3. Vienna

For more Virginia reading, check out:

Dumbest Cities In Virginia For 2024

Rank City Population % Adult High School Dropout % Highly Educated
1 Emporia, VA 5,680 23.0% 16.0%
2 Galax, VA 6,687 20.0% 17.0%
3 Dumfries, VA 5,697 24.0% 19.0%
4 Front Royal, VA 15,064 16.0% 18.0%
5 Hopewell, VA 23,046 14.0% 11.0%
6 Danville, VA 42,507 16.0% 19.0%
7 Buena Vista, VA 6,639 19.0% 21.0%
8 Vinton, VA 8,045 15.0% 19.0%
9 Richlands, VA 5,266 13.0% 16.0%
10 Marion, VA 5,722 17.0% 22.0%
11 Big Stone Gap, VA 5,221 15.0% 20.0%
12 Franklin, VA 8,194 17.0% 23.0%
13 Manassas Park, VA 17,123 20.0% 24.0%
14 South Boston, VA 7,942 14.0% 20.0%
15 Covington, VA 5,722 12.0% 11.0%
16 Pulaski, VA 8,982 12.0% 15.0%
17 Martinsville, VA 13,539 13.0% 21.0%
18 Strasburg, VA 7,104 11.0% 17.0%
19 Petersburg, VA 33,261 12.0% 23.0%
20 Woodstock, VA 5,798 13.0% 26.0%
21 Bristol, VA 17,036 12.0% 24.0%
22 Norfolk, VA 236,973 13.0% 31.0%
23 Portsmouth, VA 97,384 10.0% 22.0%
24 Culpeper, VA 20,105 13.0% 30.0%
25 Waynesboro, VA 22,341 12.0% 27.0%
26 Bluefield, VA 5,059 12.0% 28.0%
27 Wytheville, VA 8,228 10.0% 24.0%
28 Harrisonburg, VA 51,784 15.0% 36.0%
29 Manassas, VA 42,620 14.0% 35.0%
30 Winchester, VA 28,103 13.0% 32.0%
31 Ashland, VA 7,617 13.0% 35.0%
32 Farmville, VA 7,647 12.0% 31.0%
33 Herndon, VA 24,456 16.0% 52.0%
34 Roanoke, VA 99,213 10.0% 30.0%
35 Hampton, VA 137,217 8.0% 27.0%
36 Colonial Heights, VA 18,158 8.0% 28.0%
37 Newport News, VA 185,118 8.0% 29.0%
38 Suffolk, VA 94,856 9.0% 32.0%
39 Smithfield, VA 8,625 8.0% 33.0%
40 Chesapeake, VA 249,377 8.0% 35.0%
41 Richmond, VA 227,171 11.0% 44.0%
42 Lynchburg, VA 79,166 8.0% 39.0%
43 Staunton, VA 25,581 7.0% 34.0%
44 Salem, VA 25,372 6.0% 33.0%
45 Radford, VA 16,379 8.0% 44.0%
46 Abingdon, VA 8,346 7.0% 38.0%
47 Warrenton, VA 10,111 8.0% 43.0%
48 Fredericksburg, VA 28,258 7.0% 43.0%
49 Poquoson, VA 12,479 5.0% 38.0%
50 Christiansburg, VA 22,947 6.0% 43.0%
51 Leesburg, VA 48,465 8.0% 55.0%
52 Charlottesville, VA 46,289 8.0% 59.0%
53 Virginia Beach, VA 457,900 5.0% 40.0%
54 Fairfax, VA 24,242 8.0% 60.0%
55 Williamsburg, VA 15,486 6.0% 51.0%
56 Purcellville, VA 8,928 6.0% 60.0%
57 Bridgewater, VA 6,575 2.0% 52.0%
58 Alexandria, VA 157,594 6.0% 67.0%
59 Lexington, VA 7,346 2.0% 61.0%
60 Vienna, VA 16,401 2.0% 75.0%
61 Falls Church, VA 14,576 2.0% 80.0%
62 Blacksburg, VA 45,147 1.0% 68.0%
About Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson earned his masters in Business Administration from the Drucker School At Claremont Graduate University. He has written for 39 publications across the country and ran the media relations department at Movoto, a real estate portal based in San Francisco. He has been featured in over 500 publications as an expert in real estate and as an authority on real estate trends.

Nick's the creator of the HomeSnacks YouTube channel that now has over 260,000 subscribers and is an excellent source to learn about different parts of the country.

7 thoughts on “The 10 Dumbest Places In Virginia For 2024

  1. I am writing to you in reference to your Facebook article “These are the ten dumbest
    cities in Virginia” of which Luray is number three. First of all Luray is a small
    rural town, not a city. I have taught at Luray High School for 20 years. It is in
    the county of Page and is one of two high schools in the county. Page County school
    division has one of the highest on time graduation rates and one of the lowest
    dropout rates in the state of Virginia, contrary to what your article reports. We
    are a poor county but Luray High School has always been fully accredited and has
    always made all the goals to meet the No Child Left Behind adequate yearly progress
    (AYP). I am saddened that you would find pleasure in labeling our town as one of the
    dumbest in Virginia. Our graduates have been accepted and graduated from Ivy League
    universities as well as other universities on the eastern coast. We have produced
    doctors, architects, politicians, engineers, attorneys, college professors and more.
    I see no entertainment value in belittling Luray and the other towns and cities you
    included in this article. It is sad that you seek out the bad and not the good!

  2. This is NOT about the “city” at all. IF you look at the list, it is a list of where the public school systems are located and that is what the author is REALLY talking about; not the city. Plus, not all of the school systems are listed, so why were these the only ones to be singled out? One really needs to question why this was written. What are the outcomes the author is expecting? What are his motives?

  3. They need to recheck Martinsville again. Being #13 is a compliment. It should be in the top 5 in this case! Martinsville is full of dense acting people, even if they did graduate! This list should be done again!

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