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.Gretna is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-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. It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Gretna has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Gretna has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Gretna than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Gretna may be for you. As is often the case in a small town, Gretna doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.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.
