Galax city vs Surry County

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

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

Galax city has the higher population (6,698 vs 6,552 in Surry County). Surry County has the higher median household income ($71,458 vs $41,438 in Galax city). Surry County has the higher median home value ($235,200 vs $126,800 in Galax city).

Population, income & housing

	Galax city	Surry County
Population	6,698	6,552
Median age	41.9 yrs	50.7 yrs
Median household income	$41,438	$71,458
Median home value	$126,800	$235,200
Median gross rent	$692	$858
Housing units	3,213	3,438
Homeownership rate	61.6%	80.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	18.3%	25.4%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	5.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Galax city	Surry County
Population	6,517 → 6,698 (+2.8%)	6,523 → 6,552 (+0.4%)
Median household income	$33,575 → $41,438 (+23.4%)	$57,962 → $71,458 (+23.3%)
Median home value	$96,600 → $126,800 (+31.3%)	$197,800 → $235,200 (+18.9%)
Median gross rent	$574 → $692 (+20.6%)	$903 → $858 (-5.0%)

Galax city

Population

6,5176,698

Median household income

$33,575$41,438

Median home value

$96,600$126,800

Median gross rent

$574$692

Surry County

Population

6,5236,552

Median household income

$57,962$71,458

Median home value

$197,800$235,200

Median gross rent

$903$858

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Galax city	Surry County
Under 5	8.0%	5.1%
5 to 17	16.4%	11.9%
18 to 24	9.0%	7.9%
25 to 34	7.9%	8.3%
35 to 44	10.5%	10.6%
45 to 54	13.1%	12.2%
55 to 64	15.2%	19.3%
65 to 74	11.6%	15.2%
75 and over	8.3%	9.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Galax city	Surry County
White (non-Hispanic)	75.8%	54.4%
Black or African American	4.9%	41.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.1%	0.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.3%	1.5%
Hispanic or Latino	15.8%	2.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Galax city	Surry County
No high school diploma	17.0%	10.0%
High school graduate	25.3%	31.0%
Some college or associate's	39.4%	33.6%
Bachelor's degree	11.9%	18.3%
Graduate or professional degree	6.4%	7.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Galax city	Surry County
Drove alone	80.1%	76.5%
Carpooled	16.6%	14.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.6%
Walked	0.4%	0.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	3.0%	6.5%
Other means	0.0%	2.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Galax city	Surry County
1-unit, detached	72.1%	80.9%
1-unit, attached	0.8%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	9.2%	1.2%
5 to 19 units	7.5%	3.4%
20 or more units	2.4%	0.2%
Mobile home & other	7.9%	14.0%

Poverty & households

	Galax city	Surry County
Poverty rate	23.4%	11.6%
Average household size	2.34	2.38
Mean commute (minutes)	20	43
Median year structure built	1968	1982