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Virginia Beach, Virginia has 3 accredited schools offering substance abuse counseling programs, with tuition ranging from $12,750 to $51,038 per year for indexed programs. Virginia Beach has a population of about 457,066. Median household income is $90,685 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 40.4% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC metro area, the top-earning substance abuse counseling-related role is Social and Community Service Manager at a median $92,140 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer substance abuse counseling programs near Virginia Beach, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Virginia Beach city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Virginia Beach. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Virginia schools on the Virginia substance abuse counseling page.
Virginia Beach is part of the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC metro area (BLS area code 47260). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Virginia statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor | $59,280 | Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $60,552 |
| Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker | $61,760 | Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $63,085 |
| Social and Community Service Manager | $92,140 | Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $94,116 |
| Social and Human Service Assistant | $39,160 | Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $40,000 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 457,066 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $90,685 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 40.4% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 97.9 (below U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 3 accredited schools offering substance abuse counseling programs near Virginia Beach. The closest is Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA (18.0 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Virginia Commonwealth University (95.9 miles). 3 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying substance abuse counseling-related roles near Virginia Beach are: Social and Community Service Manager ($92,140), Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker ($61,760), Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor ($59,280). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Virginia statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Chesapeake, VA is 14.8 miles from Virginia Beach and has its own set of local substance abuse counseling programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Virginia Beach’s median household income of $90,685 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Virginia Beach while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and Virginia public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Virginia Beach:
Data verified: August 11, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Substance Abuse Counseling Schools in Virginia (2026)
