Gretna is a very small town located in the state of Virginia. With a population of 1,292 people and four associated neighborhoods, Gretna is the 259th largest community in Virginia.Unlike some towns, Gretna isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Gretna are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Gretna is a town of service providers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Gretna who work in healthcare suport services (18.11%), office and administrative support (15.31%), and sales jobs (10.46%). Also of interest is that Gretna has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 15.56% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. The town is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Gretna has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Gretna a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here. Being a small town, Gretna does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.The percentage of adults in Gretna with college degrees is slightly lower than the national average of 21.84% for all communities. 13.69% of adults in Gretna have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in Gretna in 2022 was $21,884, which is low income relative to Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $87,536 for a family of four. Gretna also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 32.37% of its population below the federal poverty line.Gretna is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Gretna home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Gretna residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Gretna include English, German, Irish, African, and Scots-Irish. The most common language spoken in Gretna is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
