city / Western Tidewater
Franklin
A smaller city in Western Tidewater.
A starting point for a smaller-scale home base and the Franklin-Southampton employment area. Its independent-city boundary matters for schools, taxes and data.
Editorial place sketch · research snapshot, not verified personal suitability.
POPULATION
8,4782025 estimate · Primary source
Population evidenceCOMBINED REPORTING-AREA GDP
$1.02BSouthampton County + Franklin · 2024 · current dollars
Economic evidenceSCHOOL-DIVISION DIRECTORY
2Franklin City · entries as of 2026-09-06
School inventory evidenceGDP and school counts are context—not desirability scores. School counts describe the serving division, not necessarily buildings inside this place.
PUBLIC SAFETY & LAW ENFORCEMENT
Regional benchmark (cities and counties): 314 violent / 1,674 property per 100kVirginia State Police Uniform Crime Reporting / VIBRS (2024). Standardized per-capita exposure rates, not subjective neighborhood reputation.
VIOLENT CRIME RATE
472.0↑ Above regional avg (313.8) · per 100k
VSP VIBRS evidencePROPERTY CRIME RATE
2120.0↑ Above regional avg (1,674) · 2024
VSP VIBRS evidenceSWORN LAW ENFORCEMENT
28Authorized sworn police/sheriff officers
Staffing evidenceSCHOOL DIVISION BENCHMARKS
Regional benchmark (cities and counties): 74.6% SOL · 90.8% GraduationVirginia Department of Education (VDOE) 2023–2024 School Quality Profiles for serving division (Franklin City).
SOL COMPOSITE PASS RATE
64.1%↓ Below regional avg (74.6%)
Serving school division: Franklin City
VDOE Quality ProfileON-TIME GRADUATION RATE
86.8%↓ Below regional avg (90.8%)
Serving school division: Franklin City
VDOE Quality ProfileSERVING SCHOOL DIVISION
Franklin City1 elementary · 0 middle · 1 high · 0 prekindergarten · 0 charter
Directory detailsHOUSING COSTS & LOCAL TAXES
Regional benchmark (cities and counties): $329k home · $1,381 rent · $0.94 taxU.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year (2020–2024) and Virginia Department of Taxation (TY 2024).
MEDIAN HOME VALUE
$257kAt or below regional mean ($329k)
±$27,270 margin (90% confidence)
Census ACS evidenceMEDIAN MONTHLY RENT
$988At or below regional mean ($1,381)
±$87 margin (90% confidence)
Census ACS evidenceREAL ESTATE TAX RATE
$1.03Higher than regional avg ($0.94)
Virginia Tax SurveyINDEPENDENT FOOD SCENE
Regional benchmark (cities and counties): 14.4 cuisine groups · 15.8 restaurants per 10kOverture Maps and OpenStreetMap establishment records (2026), chains excluded by brand or name. Counts, not ratings.
DISTINCT CUISINE GROUPS
6chinese · italian · japanese · latin american · mexican · pan asian
Overture Places evidenceINDEPENDENT RESTAURANTS
1315.3 per 10,000 residents
OpenStreetMap cross-checkINDEPENDENT COFFEE ROASTERS
02 independent coffee shops; no roastery self-described on its own site
Roaster sites verified 2026-09-08ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION & DAILY COMMUTE
Regional benchmark (cities and counties): 26.9 min commute · 90.5% broadbandHRTPO Regional Active Transportation Network & U.S. Census Bureau commuting data.
MULTI-USE TRAIL MILEAGE
3.2 miDesignated paved greenways and multi-use paths
HRTPO Active TransportationMEAN COMMUTE TIME
23.3 minAt or shorter than regional avg (26.9m)
±4.4 min margin (90% confidence)
Census ACS evidenceBROADBAND ADOPTION
92.2%At or above regional adoption (90.5%)
±3.5 pts margin (90% confidence)
Census ACS evidenceRECORDED OPPORTUNITIES
Get to know the place.
Bon Secours Southampton Medical Center
Hospital in Franklin; hospital name does not establish Southampton County containment.
Facility presence is not verified personal access.
Bon Secours Southampton Medical CenterTRADEOFFS & NEXT CHECKS
What to look into.
Its GDP is published jointly with Southampton County.
Regional employer names do not prove an in-city workplace.
Actual housing, routes, school assignment, provider access, taxes, insurance, and parcel risks require address-level verification.
Serving school division
Franklin City
1 elementary · 0 middle · 1 high · 0 prekindergarten · 0 charter
ECONOMIC CONTEXT
10 selected regional major employers
Franklin + Southampton combined area · Period not established
Five manufacturing and five non-manufacturing examples, not an overall top-10 ranking. Underlying date absent; names are source-reported and may be historical.
verified selective 10- Enviva100-199 reported employees
- Solenis50-99 reported employees
- Birdsong Peanuts50-99 reported employees
- Hubbard Peanut50-99 reported employees
- FERIDIES20-49 reported employees
- Southampton Memorial Hospital300-599 reported employees
- Paul D. Camp Community College300-599 reported employees
- Deerfield Correctional Center100-299 reported employees
- Food Lion100-299 reported employees
- Walmart100-299 reported employees
Sources, dates & geographic scope · 15 records
- HRPDC locality directory
HRPDC · period 2026-09-06 · reviewed 2026-09-06
- Regional water supply planning participating localities
HRPDC · period 2026-09-06 · reviewed 2026-09-06
27-place baseline; updated water planning additionally includes New Kent. Registry is a product scope, not an MSA definition.
- 2024 nominal GDP: Southampton County + Franklin
BEA via Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · period 2024 · reviewed 2026-09-06
Source units thousands of current US dollars. Stored value converted to USD. Updated 2026-02-05.
- VDOE public-school directory: Franklin City
Virginia Department of Education · period 2026-09-06 · reviewed 2026-09-06
Manual count of directory entries; category is VDOE-reported. Not all private schools, not enrollment, not distinct buildings, not quality.
- Census QuickFacts: Franklin
US Census Bureau · period 2025-07-01 · reviewed 2026-09-06
Population is Vintage 2025; ACS values separately carry 2020-2024 period.
- 10 selected regional major employers
Franklin Southampton Economic Development · period not established · reviewed 2026-09-06
Five manufacturing and five non-manufacturing examples, not an overall top-10 ranking. Underlying date absent; names are source-reported and may be historical.
- Bon Secours Southampton Medical Center
Bon Secours · period 2026-09-06 · reviewed 2026-09-06
- Virginia State Police 2024 Crime in Virginia (VIBRS)
Virginia State Police · period 2024 · reviewed 2026-09-07
Incident-based violent and property offense reporting across independent cities, counties, and municipal law enforcement agencies. Values entered manually from the published tables; no archived document hash.
- Virginia Department of Education 2023-2024 School Quality Profiles
Virginia Department of Education · period 2023-2024 · reviewed 2026-09-07
Accreditation benchmarks, composite Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates, 4-year on-time graduation cohorts, and student growth. Values entered manually from the published tables; no archived document hash.
- Virginia Department of Taxation 2024 Local Tax Rates Survey
Virginia Department of Taxation · period 2024 · reviewed 2026-09-07
Annual compilation of nominal real estate and personal property tax rates per $100 assessed value for all 95 counties, 38 independent cities, and 190 incorporated towns. Read from the TY 2024 PDF (https://www.tax.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/2024-local-tax-rates.pdf, sha256 d5c22251be9c2ea0b58c0dfa771538feb591ac6f7114395e229643a39976499c); text extract archived under data/hampton-roads/tax/raw. Town figures are the county levy plus the town levy.
- HRTPO Regional Active Transportation Network & Multi-Use Trails Inventory
Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization · period 2024 · reviewed 2026-09-08
Off-road paved greenways, multi-use paths, and active transportation corridors across member jurisdictions. Landing page; inventory table not archived. Values entered manually from the published tables; no archived document hash.
- Overture Maps Foundation Places, release 2026-08-19.0 (Hampton Roads extract)
Overture Maps Foundation · period 2026-08 · reviewed 2026-09-08
Open places dataset (ODbL and CDLA-Permissive-2.0). Regional extract archived under data/hampton-roads/food/raw with a content hash. Names, categories, brands and coordinates only; no ratings.
- OpenStreetMap restaurants, cafes and coffee roasters via Overpass (Hampton Roads extract)
OpenStreetMap contributors · period 2026-09 · reviewed 2026-09-08
ODbL. Used for cuisine tags and chain (brand) cross-checks within 150 m of an Overture record. Extract archived with a content hash.
- U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb county-equivalent and incorporated-place boundaries
U.S. Census Bureau · period 2026 · reviewed 2026-09-08
Polygons used to assign each establishment to a city, county or town by point-in-polygon. Public domain.
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates 2020-2024 (detailed tables B25077, B25064, B19013, B08013, B08303, B28002, B25003)
U.S. Census Bureau · period 2020-2024 · reviewed 2026-09-08
Public table-based summary files (no API key). The 27 Hampton Roads rows of each table, the geography rows and the variable definitions are archived under data/hampton-roads/acs/raw with content hashes; margins of error are 90 percent. Medians are published directly; commute, broadband and owner-occupancy are derived from published counts with Census ratio/proportion margin formulas.
Could this be your kind of everyday?
Find my city fitSource snapshot hampton-roads-2026-09-10. This app migration did not re-audit the external research.