Blacksburg vs Christiansburg

A side-by-side comparison of Blacksburg and Christiansburg: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Blacksburg has the higher population (45,288 vs 22,820 in Christiansburg). Christiansburg has the higher median household income ($75,451 vs $48,070 in Blacksburg). Blacksburg has the higher median home value ($417,200 vs $242,900 in Christiansburg).

Population, income & housing

	Blacksburg	Christiansburg
Population	45,288	22,820
Median age	21.9 yrs	37.6 yrs
Median household income	$48,070	$75,451
Median home value	$417,200	$242,900
Median gross rent	$1,290	$1,171
Housing units	16,893	10,588
Homeownership rate	34.2%	60.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	69.7%	45.5%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	2.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Blacksburg	Christiansburg
Population	44,303 → 45,288 (+2.2%)	22,163 → 22,820 (+3.0%)
Median household income	$43,173 → $48,070 (+11.3%)	$60,856 → $75,451 (+24.0%)
Median home value	$298,400 → $417,200 (+39.8%)	$190,000 → $242,900 (+27.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,107 → $1,290 (+16.5%)	$910 → $1,171 (+28.7%)

Blacksburg

Population

44,30345,288

Median household income

$43,173$48,070

Median home value

$298,400$417,200

Median gross rent

$1,107$1,290

Christiansburg

Population

22,16322,820

Median household income

$60,856$75,451

Median home value

$190,000$242,900

Median gross rent

$910$1,171

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Blacksburg	Christiansburg
Under 5	2.6%	5.2%
5 to 17	7.1%	15.3%
18 to 24	53.5%	8.2%
25 to 34	10.5%	16.4%
35 to 44	7.9%	13.7%
45 to 54	5.7%	12.0%
55 to 64	4.9%	11.5%
65 to 74	5.0%	10.2%
75 and over	2.8%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Blacksburg	Christiansburg
White (non-Hispanic)	75.6%	83.5%
Black or African American	4.3%	5.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.1%
Asian	10.8%	3.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.2%
Some other race	0.6%	0.5%
Two or more races	3.5%	2.4%
Hispanic or Latino	4.5%	4.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Blacksburg	Christiansburg
No high school diploma	1.7%	5.6%
High school graduate	11.8%	23.4%
Some college or associate's	16.8%	25.5%
Bachelor's degree	28.7%	23.7%
Graduate or professional degree	41.1%	21.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Blacksburg	Christiansburg
Drove alone	53.9%	79.9%
Carpooled	6.6%	7.8%
Public transit	6.6%	0.0%
Walked	10.8%	0.6%
Bicycle	2.9%	0.1%
Worked from home	17.2%	11.3%
Other means	2.0%	0.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Blacksburg	Christiansburg
1-unit, detached	37.5%	57.8%
1-unit, attached	6.0%	16.1%
2 to 4 units	10.8%	9.2%
5 to 19 units	35.1%	8.9%
20 or more units	8.7%	0.7%
Mobile home & other	1.9%	7.4%

Poverty & households

	Blacksburg	Christiansburg
Poverty rate	42.8%	12.4%
Average household size	2.55	2.30
Mean commute (minutes)	15	18
Median year structure built	1983	1989