Chester is a somewhat small town located in the state of Virginia. With a population of 17,863 people and eight constituent neighborhoods, Chester is the 55th largest community in Virginia.

Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Chester is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Chester is a town of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Chester who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.91%), sales jobs (12.39%), and management occupations (9.20%).

Also of interest is that Chester has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Residents of Chester by-and-large get to work each day by driving: 98.5% use their own cars for their daily commute, making it a very car-oriented town. While Chester may be a convenient place for driving around town, the negative aspect of this is that places that are suitable for walking or bicycling to and from work or stores may be few and far between. In general, car-oriented communities emphasize roads and convenience of driving, but not have a lot of walking-friendly areas to get from home to work, and tend not to have a lot of public transportation options.

Being a small town, Chester does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Chester Information and Demographics

The overall education level of Chester citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 27.68% of adults in Chester have at least a bachelor's degree, and the average American community has 14.96%.

The per capita income in Chester in 2000 was $23,258, which is upper middle income relative to Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $93,032 for a family of four.

Chester is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Chester home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Chester is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Chester include English, German, Irish, and Italian.

The most common language spoken in Chester is English. Some people also speak Spanish.