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Place dossier plate
SheetWV-KEYSER-WV · Keyser, WV 4,870 pop · income 17th pct · 7 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 Keyser
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Keyser on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Grafton · lowest
38,872
Grafton · lowest
38,872 median HH income
32.1% of the leader · rank #1
Rouzerville · near
47,987
Rouzerville · near
47,987 median HH income
39.7% of the leader · rank #2
Keyser · this city
47,991
Keyser · this city
47,991 median HH income
39.7% of the leader · rank #3
Spencer · near
47,994
Spencer · near
47,994 median HH income
39.7% of the leader · rank #4
Interlachen · near
48,000
Interlachen · near
48,000 median HH income
39.7% of the leader · rank #5
Waverly · near
48,000
Waverly · near
48,000 median HH income
39.7% of the leader · rank #6
Raynham Center · highest
120,913
Raynham Center · highest
120,913 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 Keyser 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: 4,870.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Keyser - the verdict
Keyser ranks in the 17th percentile for household income and the 46th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
17th
percentile, household income
24th
percentile, home value
5th
percentile, median rent
46th
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: Keyser, WV
West Virginia's Keyser is a small town, with 4,870 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Keyser households earn a median of $47,991 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 18.1%. Keyser's housing stock carries a median value of $141,400, and the median resident age is 39.7 years. Educational attainment runs 21.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 47.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits). Keyser reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1487.9 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). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 52.5°F with 41.4 inches of precipitation per year and 33.5 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. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.2 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Keyser'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 within-city variation to housing and income to climate and hazard context to schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to reported crime to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Keyser, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can 7 Census tracts reveal inside Keyser?
PlainCities matches 7 Census tracts to this city.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Keyser?
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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 18.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 52.5°F, with 41.4 inches of precipitation and 33.5 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Keyser?
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.
Within West Virginia, the closest population matches are Grafton (4,671 residents, $38,872 income); Buckhannon (5,144 residents, $48,720 income); New Martinsville (5,175 residents, $51,226 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Desloge, MO (4,870 residents); Raynham Center, MA (4,871 residents); Dellwood, MO (4,869 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Keyser?
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.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 21.1% 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.
Poverty estimate
18.1%
Bachelor's degree+
21.1%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Keyser?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.1%. 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. 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.
Drive alone
76.1%
Work from home
11.2%
Public transit
3.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,049 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Keyser?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1487.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 35% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
1487.9
Violent rate
248.0
Property rate
1239.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -80 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. 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.
2020 estimate
4,857
2025 estimate
4,777
Period change
-1.6%
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.
Violent crime D
248 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$47,991
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
18.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Keyser profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 87/100 (A) · 89.5 index
Violent crime: 41/100 (D) · 248 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 38/100 (F) · 21.1%
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $47,991
Poverty rate: 17/100 (F) · 18.1%
Where Keyser sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Keyser'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 - Keyser highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Keyser, WV (this city): home $141,400, crime 1,488/100k
Desloge, MO : home $112,800, crime 3,297/100k
Grafton, WV : home $72,700, crime 924/100k
Buckhannon, WV : home $152,000, crime 1,556/100k
New Martinsville, WV : home $112,600, crime 139/100k
Barboursville, WV : home $212,000, crime 2,889/100k
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 Keyser compare to other US cities?
Here's how Keyser stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income17% higher than other cities
Home value24% pricier than other cities
Median rent5% pricier than other cities
Safety46% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just West Virginia and the picture shifts: Keyser ranks #19 of 45 West Virginia cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Keyser 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 Keyser near the bottom of West Virginia's cities
Among the 390 West Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Keyser ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Keyser only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#191 of 330
42nd percentile in West Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 390
0th percentile in West Virginia
Median Home Value
#101 of 337
70th percentile in West Virginia
Poverty Rate
#118 of 389
69th percentile in West Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#126 of 390
68th 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
17th percentile nationally for median household income · 46th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Keyser's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Keyser'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 Keyser's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$141,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 76% 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
Keyser's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,409 of 15,516
More affordable than 59% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,463 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Keyser sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,409 of 15,516 and #5,463 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
$47,991Keyser, WV median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Keyser, 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 Keyser, WV.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)18.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,870
Median Income
$47,991
Median Home Value
$141,400
Median Age
39.7
Poverty Rate
18.1%
Labor force participation
47.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1487.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
248.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1239.9
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
52.5°F
Annual Precipitation
41.4"
Annual Snowfall
33.5"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Keyser's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,857 residents
2021
4,886 residents
2022
4,863 residents
2023
4,833 residents
2024
4,799 residents
2025
4,777 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
32
0
32
$1.9M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.1%
Carpool
6.6%
Public Transit
3.4%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
11.2%
Other
2.0%
Based on 2,049 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 Keyser. 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 Keyser 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 Keyser sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Keyser 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.