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Place dossier plate
SheetWV-BLUEFIELD-WV · Bluefield, WV 9,511 pop · income 12th pct · 16 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Bluefield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bluefield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Coamo zona ur… · lowest
15,959
Coamo zona ur… · lowest
15,959 median HH income
14.3% of the leader · rank #1
Seabrook Farms · near
43,815
Seabrook Farms · near
43,815 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #2
Spring Valley… · near
43,816
Spring Valley… · near
43,816 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #3
Hiawassee · near
43,819
Hiawassee · near
43,819 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #4
Bluefield · this city
43,826
Bluefield · this city
43,826 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #5
Munson · near
43,828
Munson · near
43,828 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #6
Cheat Lake · highest
111,379
Cheat Lake · highest
111,379 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Bluefield on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 9,511.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bluefield - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Bluefield places in the 12th percentile for household income and the 45th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
12th
percentile, household income
10th
percentile, home value
5th
percentile, median rent
45th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Bluefield, WV
Bluefield is a small town in West Virginia, home to 9,511 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Bluefield report a median income of $43,826 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 15.1%. Home values in Bluefield run a median of $101,000, and the median resident age is 41.2 years. 24.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 49.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 4 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier. Bluefield reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1517.0 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 51.5°F with 45.4 inches of precipitation per year and 39.7 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in West Virginia run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, West Virginia scores 89.5 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $945 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $220 across West Virginia, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Bluefield report an average commute of 20.4 minutes, with 79.4% driving alone and 7.4% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 49.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bluefield's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households to within-city variation to reported crime to climate and hazard context to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bluefield, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Bluefield?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.4 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bluefield?
Within West Virginia, the closest population matches are Bridgeport (9,292 residents, $99,936 income); Cross Lanes (10,172 residents, $62,704 income); Cheat Lake (10,485 residents, $111,379 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, MT (9,512 residents); Amityville, NY (9,513 residents); St. Anthony city (Hennepin and Ramsey Counties), MN (9,516 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the education layer cover for Bluefield?
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 24.7% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
What can 16 Census tracts reveal inside Bluefield?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 16 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bluefield?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1517.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1036.8
Violent rate
480.2
Total reported rate
1517.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 51.5°F, with 45.4 inches of precipitation and 39.7 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for West Virginia is 49.2 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
51.5°F
Annual precipitation
45.4 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
49.2
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
How far does income reach against housing in Bluefield?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Household income
$43,826
Home value
$101,000
Value / income
2.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Bluefield growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -458 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 4 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-4.8%
2025 estimate
9,158
2020 estimate
9,616
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A
89.5 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share D
24.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
480 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$43,826
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bluefield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 87/100 (A) · 89.5 index
Bachelor's+ share: 48/100 (D) · 24.7%
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.1%
Violent crime: 17/100 (F) · 480 /100k
Household income: 12/100 (F) · $43,826
Where Bluefield sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bluefield's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Bluefield highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Bluefield, WV (this city): home $101,000, crime 1,517/100k
Oil City, PA : home $66,600, crime 903/100k
Tomah, WI : home $162,900, crime 2,050/100k
Bridgeport, WV : home $276,700, crime 1,596/100k
Vienna, WV : home $155,500, crime 3,463/100k
St. Albans, WV : home $131,800, crime 2,313/100k
Oak Hill, WV : home $110,400, crime 2,220/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Bluefield compare to other US cities?
Bluefield measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income12% higher than other cities
Home value10% pricier than other cities
Median rent5% pricier than other cities
Safety45% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at West Virginia, Bluefield ranks #20 of 45 West Virginia cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Bluefield against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to West Virginia only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
West Virginia-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bluefield near the bottom of West Virginia's cities
Among the 390 West Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bluefield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bluefield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#225 of 330
32nd percentile in West Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 390
0th percentile in West Virginia
Median Home Value
#188 of 337
44th percentile in West Virginia
Poverty Rate
#143 of 389
63rd percentile in West Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#94 of 390
76th percentile in West Virginia
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within West Virginia only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
12th percentile nationally for median household income · 45th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bluefield's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bluefield's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Bluefield's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$101,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 90% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Bluefield's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,972 of 15,516
More affordable than 81% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,745 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.3×, Bluefield sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,972 of 15,516 and #2,745 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$43,826Bluefield, WV median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bluefield, WV median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bluefield, WV.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)24.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
9,511
Median Income
$43,826
Median Home Value
$101,000
Median Age
41.2
Poverty Rate
15.1%
Labor force participation
49.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
24.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1517.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
480.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1036.8
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
51.5°F
Annual Precipitation
45.4"
Annual Snowfall
39.7"
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bluefield's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
9,616 residents
2021
9,537 residents
2022
9,410 residents
2023
9,300 residents
2024
9,191 residents
2025
9,158 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
4
housing units authorized
Single-Family
4
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$0.6M
2020
4
4
0
$0.6M
2021
5
5
0
$0.8M
2022
1
1
0
$0.3M
2023
2
2
0
$0.4M
2024
4
4
0
$0.8M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.4 minutes
Drive Alone
79.4%
Carpool
8.2%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
7.4%
Other
2.9%
Based on 3,683 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
West Virginia statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $220
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across West Virginia at $220 (electricity about $110 , water and sewer about $38 ).
These are West Virginia statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bluefield. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
West Virginia's BEA cost-of-living index is 89.5 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bluefield is $945/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to West Virginia statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.2 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a West Virginia statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bluefield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bluefield compares to similar-size West Virginia cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.