Big Island vs Forest

A side-by-side comparison of Big Island and Forest: population, income, housing, and more.

Big Island and Forest are places in Virginia. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Forest has the higher population (12,476 vs 103 in Big Island). Forest has the higher median home value ($319,100 vs $137,500 in Big Island). Since 2019, Forest's population has grown faster (+15.1% vs -49.3%).

Population, income & housing

	Big Island	Forest
Population	103	12,476
Median age	68.0 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	—	$78,825
Median home value	$137,500	$319,100
Median gross rent	—	$1,112
Housing units	92	5,193
Homeownership rate	40.6%	75.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	0.0%	48.4%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	3.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big Island	Forest
Population	203 → 103 (-49.3%)	10,836 → 12,476 (+15.1%)
Median household income	$34,762 → $40,268 (+15.8%)	$76,367 → $78,825 (+3.2%)
Median home value	$107,500 → $137,500 (+27.9%)	$234,500 → $319,100 (+36.1%)
Median gross rent	—	$988 → $1,112 (+12.6%)

Big Island

Population

203103

Median household income

$34,762$40,268

Median home value

$107,500$137,500

Forest

Population

10,83612,476

Median household income

$76,367$78,825

Median home value

$234,500$319,100

Median gross rent

$988$1,112

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big Island	Forest
Under 5	0.0%	5.3%
5 to 17	12.6%	14.2%
18 to 24	8.7%	10.4%
25 to 34	0.0%	12.0%
35 to 44	10.7%	10.6%
45 to 54	8.7%	11.6%
55 to 64	8.7%	14.8%
65 to 74	41.7%	10.6%
75 and over	8.7%	10.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big Island	Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	74.8%	76.9%
Black or African American	25.2%	9.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.0%	1.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.4%
Two or more races	0.0%	6.5%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	3.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big Island	Forest
No high school diploma	0.0%	4.7%
High school graduate	75.3%	17.4%
Some college or associate's	24.7%	29.4%
Bachelor's degree	0.0%	26.2%
Graduate or professional degree	0.0%	22.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big Island	Forest
Drove alone	100.0%	77.1%
Carpooled	0.0%	5.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	16.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big Island	Forest
1-unit, detached	100.0%	56.8%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	15.6%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	6.4%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	12.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	7.6%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	1.6%

Poverty & households

	Big Island	Forest
Poverty rate	0.0%	7.5%
Average household size	1.49	2.44
Mean commute (minutes)	—	22
Median year structure built	1950	1991