Bon Air vs Chester

A side-by-side comparison of Bon Air and Chester: population, income, housing, and more.

Bon Air and Chester are places in Virginia. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Chester has the higher population (23,519 vs 17,302 in Bon Air). Bon Air has the higher median household income ($97,620 vs $88,455 in Chester). Bon Air has the higher median home value ($329,200 vs $290,600 in Chester).

Population, income & housing

	Bon Air	Chester
Population	17,302	23,519
Median age	42.0 yrs	41.2 yrs
Median household income	$97,620	$88,455
Median home value	$329,200	$290,600
Median gross rent	$1,731	$1,463
Housing units	7,369	9,697
Homeownership rate	72.6%	72.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	54.0%	32.6%
Unemployment rate	3.4%	3.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bon Air	Chester
Population	18,052 → 17,302 (-4.2%)	22,032 → 23,519 (+6.7%)
Median household income	$81,896 → $97,620 (+19.2%)	$70,519 → $88,455 (+25.4%)
Median home value	$241,000 → $329,200 (+36.6%)	$221,900 → $290,600 (+31.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,381 → $1,731 (+25.3%)	$1,197 → $1,463 (+22.2%)

Bon Air

Population

18,05217,302

Median household income

$81,896$97,620

Median home value

$241,000$329,200

Median gross rent

$1,381$1,731

Chester

Population

22,03223,519

Median household income

$70,519$88,455

Median home value

$221,900$290,600

Median gross rent

$1,197$1,463

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bon Air	Chester
Under 5	4.8%	5.6%
5 to 17	17.4%	17.2%
18 to 24	6.6%	8.0%
25 to 34	11.7%	10.5%
35 to 44	15.4%	13.7%
45 to 54	12.8%	15.7%
55 to 64	12.6%	13.5%
65 to 74	10.1%	9.4%
75 and over	8.6%	6.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bon Air	Chester
White (non-Hispanic)	73.3%	54.2%
Black or African American	11.3%	28.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	4.1%	2.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.3%
Some other race	0.2%	0.8%
Two or more races	2.9%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	8.3%	11.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bon Air	Chester
No high school diploma	6.2%	7.2%
High school graduate	14.6%	27.5%
Some college or associate's	25.2%	32.6%
Bachelor's degree	32.6%	21.4%
Graduate or professional degree	21.4%	11.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bon Air	Chester
Drove alone	71.6%	73.3%
Carpooled	9.9%	7.1%
Public transit	0.7%	0.8%
Walked	0.2%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	17.1%	16.1%
Other means	0.6%	1.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bon Air	Chester
1-unit, detached	70.9%	70.4%
1-unit, attached	4.9%	6.7%
2 to 4 units	3.5%	5.6%
5 to 19 units	9.5%	4.9%
20 or more units	8.5%	7.2%
Mobile home & other	2.8%	5.2%

Poverty & households

	Bon Air	Chester
Poverty rate	6.2%	7.8%
Average household size	2.43	2.56
Mean commute (minutes)	22	28
Median year structure built	1975	1990