Harrisonburg is also a major college town with a large number of people who are 18 years or older and attending college. As is often the case in college towns, the many students that live in Harrisonburg have a strong influence on the local culture and entertainment scene, which may seem dormant by comparison in the summer months when much of the student population is away. In the fall, the return of students has a reinvigorating effect on the community. Because colleges are lasting institutions, they have a stabilizing effect on the economy by providing direct local benefits such as jobs for faculty and staff and spending by students. Harrisonburg’s economy is one such example of this.
Not only is Harrisonburg a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a very large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. That’s because Harrisonburg is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Harrisonburg a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Harrisonburg spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 18.14 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
The education level of Harrisonburg citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 35.19% of adults in Harrisonburg have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Harrisonburg in 2022 was $25,881, which is lower middle income relative to Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $103,524 for a family of four. However, Harrisonburg contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Harrisonburg is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Harrisonburg home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Harrisonburg residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Harrisonburg also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 20.78% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Harrisonburg include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Swiss.
Harrisonburg also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 17.58%.
The most common language spoken in Harrisonburg is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Arabic.
