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Place dossier plate
SheetWV-KINGWOOD-WV · Kingwood, WV 2,980 pop · income 46th pct · 11 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 Kingwood
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Kingwood on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Williamson · lowest
24,119
Williamson · lowest
24,119 median HH income
21.8% of the leader · rank #1
Wellington · near
67,404
Wellington · near
67,404 median HH income
60.9% of the leader · rank #2
Fairmont · near
67,404
Fairmont · near
67,404 median HH income
60.9% of the leader · rank #3
Kingwood · this city
67,411
Kingwood · this city
67,411 median HH income
61.0% of the leader · rank #4
Unionville · near
67,417
Unionville · near
67,417 median HH income
61.0% of the leader · rank #5
Chester · near
67,417
Chester · near
67,417 median HH income
61.0% of the leader · rank #6
Bar Nunn · highest
110,598
Bar Nunn · highest
110,598 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 Kingwood 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: 2,980.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Kingwood lands in the 46th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
46th
percentile, household income
31st
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: Kingwood, WV
West Virginia's Kingwood is a small town, with 2,980 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Kingwood households earn a median of $67,411 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.2%. Kingwood's housing stock carries a median value of $162,700, and the median resident age is 42.9 years. Educational attainment runs 31.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 56.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 83% from five years earlier.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $945 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in West Virginia run around $220, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Kingwood report an average commute of 25.5 minutes, with 79.8% driving alone and 2.5% 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 Kingwood'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 schools and households to within-city variation to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Kingwood, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Kingwood?
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 79.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.5 minutes.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 31.7% 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.
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 11 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Kingwood?
Within West Virginia, the closest population matches are Williamson (2,979 residents, $24,119 income); Kenova (2,977 residents, $53,438 income); Williamstown (2,977 residents, $75,577 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are DeWitt, AR (2,980 residents); Parksdale, CA (2,980 residents); Dakota City, NE (2,980 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Kingwood?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.2%, 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
$67,411
Home value
$162,700
Value / income
2.4×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Kingwood 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 -43 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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
-1.4%
2025 estimate
2,937
2020 estimate
2,980
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 12.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
89.5 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, West Virginia average
C
City profile score · Kingwood, WV
55/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C+
31.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$67,411
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Kingwood profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 87/100 (A) · 89.5 index
Bachelor's+ share: 61/100 (C+) · 31.7%
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $67,411
Poverty rate: 31/100 (F) · 12.2%
How does Kingwood compare to other US cities?
Kingwood measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value31% 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 Kingwood 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 Kingwood near the bottom of West Virginia's cities
Among the 390 West Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Kingwood ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Kingwood only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#78 of 330
76th percentile in West Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 390
0th percentile in West Virginia
Median Home Value
#76 of 337
77th percentile in West Virginia
Poverty Rate
#178 of 389
54th percentile in West Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#62 of 390
84th 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
46th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Kingwood's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$162,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 69% 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
Kingwood's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,558 of 15,516
More affordable than 77% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,237 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.4×, Kingwood sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,558 of 15,516 and #3,237 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
$67,411Kingwood, WV median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Kingwood, 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 Kingwood, WV.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)31.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,980
Median Income
$67,411
Median Home Value
$162,700
Median Age
42.9
Poverty Rate
12.2%
Labor force participation
56.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
31.7%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Kingwood's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,980 residents
2021
2,987 residents
2022
2,968 residents
2023
2,950 residents
2024
2,941 residents
2025
2,937 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
6
6
0
$0.9M
2020
2
2
0
$0.3M
2021
3
3
0
$0.9M
2022
3
3
0
$0.9M
2023
2
2
0
$0.6M
2024
1
1
0
$0.3M
Permit volume decreased 83% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.5 minutes
Drive Alone
79.8%
Carpool
14.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.5%
Work from Home
2.5%
Based on 1,289 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 Kingwood. 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 Kingwood 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 Kingwood sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Kingwood 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 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.