Bristol city vs Patrick County

A side-by-side comparison of Bristol city and Patrick County: population, income, housing, and more.

Bristol city and Patrick County are counties in Virginia. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Patrick County has the higher population (17,606 vs 17,024 in Bristol city). Patrick County has the higher median household income ($50,938 vs $44,706 in Bristol city). Bristol city has the higher median home value ($168,700 vs $146,500 in Patrick County).

Population, income & housing

	Bristol city	Patrick County
Population	17,024	17,606
Median age	42.6 yrs	51.0 yrs
Median household income	$44,706	$50,938
Median home value	$168,700	$146,500
Median gross rent	$775	$721
Housing units	8,654	10,006
Homeownership rate	63.1%	77.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.9%	15.2%
Unemployment rate	4.4%	2.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bristol city	Patrick County
Population	16,912 → 17,024 (+0.7%)	17,748 → 17,606 (-0.8%)
Median household income	$37,500 → $44,706 (+19.2%)	$43,073 → $50,938 (+18.3%)
Median home value	$111,700 → $168,700 (+51.0%)	$120,000 → $146,500 (+22.1%)
Median gross rent	$687 → $775 (+12.8%)	$573 → $721 (+25.8%)

Bristol city

Population

16,91217,024

Median household income

$37,500$44,706

Median home value

$111,700$168,700

Median gross rent

$687$775

Patrick County

Population

17,74817,606

Median household income

$43,073$50,938

Median home value

$120,000$146,500

Median gross rent

$573$721

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bristol city	Patrick County
Under 5	5.2%	4.3%
5 to 17	15.0%	13.1%
18 to 24	8.0%	4.7%
25 to 34	10.9%	9.2%
35 to 44	13.0%	9.9%
45 to 54	12.1%	14.8%
55 to 64	12.7%	17.2%
65 to 74	12.5%	14.8%
75 and over	10.6%	12.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bristol city	Patrick County
White (non-Hispanic)	85.3%	89.4%
Black or African American	6.7%	5.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.3%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.3%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	2.7%	3.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bristol city	Patrick County
No high school diploma	10.4%	15.6%
High school graduate	34.7%	36.0%
Some college or associate's	30.9%	33.1%
Bachelor's degree	14.1%	11.5%
Graduate or professional degree	9.8%	3.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bristol city	Patrick County
Drove alone	79.1%	76.1%
Carpooled	5.0%	9.4%
Public transit	0.1%	0.1%
Walked	4.0%	2.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	11.2%	11.1%
Other means	0.6%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bristol city	Patrick County
1-unit, detached	65.4%	70.6%
1-unit, attached	5.1%	0.9%
2 to 4 units	8.3%	1.0%
5 to 19 units	15.0%	1.3%
20 or more units	5.3%	0.5%
Mobile home & other	0.9%	25.7%

Poverty & households

	Bristol city	Patrick County
Poverty rate	18.3%	10.8%
Average household size	2.28	2.20
Mean commute (minutes)	18	32
Median year structure built	1966	1981