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Place dossier plate
SheetWV-FORT-GAY-WV · Fort Gay, WV 459 pop · income 2nd pct
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 Fort Gay
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fort Gay on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Gauley Bridge · lowest
19,500
Gauley Bridge · lowest
19,500 median HH income
12.4% of the leader · rank #1
Gibson · near
27,649
Gibson · near
27,649 median HH income
17.5% of the leader · rank #2
Milan · near
27,656
Milan · near
27,656 median HH income
17.5% of the leader · rank #3
Fort Gay · this city
27,679
Fort Gay · this city
27,679 median HH income
17.5% of the leader · rank #4
Young Harris · near
27,692
Young Harris · near
27,692 median HH income
17.5% of the leader · rank #5
Lassalle comu… · near
27,700
Lassalle comu… · near
27,700 median HH income
17.6% of the leader · rank #6
La Madera CDP… · highest
157,813
La Madera CDP… · highest
157,813 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Fort Gay on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 459.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Fort Gay places in the 2nd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
2nd
percentile, household income
1st
percentile, home value
5th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Fort Gay, WV
459 people live in Fort Gay, West Virginia - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Fort Gay report a median income of $27,679 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 29.7%. Home values in Fort Gay run a median of $58,100, and the median resident age is 47.1 years. 5.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 36.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Living costs in West Virginia run below the national norm: the state registers 89.5 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $945 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in West Virginia run around $220, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Fort Gay'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 schools and households to housing and income to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fort Gay, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Fort Gay?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 5.3% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Fort Gay?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 29.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Is Fort Gay growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -22 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.3% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fort Gay?
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.
Within West Virginia, the closest population matches are Dupont (455 residents, $39,286 income); Pineville (463 residents, $42,037 income); Delbarton (466 residents, $39,167 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bangor, CA (459 residents); Westcliffe, CO (459 residents); Kimmell, IN (459 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Fort Gay?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 88.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Drive alone
88.8%
Work from home
1.4%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 143 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 29.7% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
89.5 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, West Virginia average
F
City profile score · Fort Gay, WV
22/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
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.
Household income F
$27,679
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
29.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
5.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fort Gay profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 87/100 (A) · 89.5 index
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $27,679
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 29.7%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 5.3%
How does Fort Gay compare to other US cities?
Here's how Fort Gay stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income2% higher than other cities
Home value1% pricier than other cities
Median rent5% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Fort Gay 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 Fort Gay near the bottom of West Virginia's cities
Among the 390 West Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fort Gay ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fort Gay only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#308 of 330
7th percentile in West Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 390
0th percentile in West Virginia
Median Home Value
#311 of 337
7th percentile in West Virginia
Poverty Rate
#55 of 389
86th percentile in West Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#314 of 390
19th 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
2nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Fort Gay's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$58,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 99% 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
Fort Gay's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,002 of 15,516
More affordable than 87% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,897 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.1×, Fort Gay sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,002 of 15,516 and #1,897 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
$27,679Fort Gay, WV median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fort Gay, 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 Fort Gay, WV.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)5.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)29.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)36.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
459
Median Income
$27,679
Median Home Value
$58,100
Median Age
47.1
Poverty Rate
29.7%
Labor force participation
36.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
5.3%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Fort Gay's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
676 residents
2021
672 residents
2022
664 residents
2023
659 residents
2024
655 residents
2025
654 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
88.8%
Carpool
5.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
1.4%
Other
4.2%
Based on 143 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 Fort Gay. 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 Fort Gay 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 Fort Gay sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fort Gay 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, NCES CCD, 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.