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Place dossier plate
SheetWV-MOUNDSVILLE-WV · Moundsville, WV 7,934 pop · income 17th pct · 10 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 Moundsville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Moundsville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Elkins · lowest
47,746
Elkins · lowest
47,746 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #1
Moundsville · this city
48,590
Moundsville · this city
48,590 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #2
Carbondale · near
48,592
Carbondale · near
48,592 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #3
Quinhagak · near
48,594
Quinhagak · near
48,594 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #4
Vergennes · near
48,594
Vergennes · near
48,594 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #5
Waterford · near
48,594
Waterford · near
48,594 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #6
Lincolnshire · highest
179,735
Lincolnshire · highest
179,735 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 Moundsville 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: 7,934.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Moundsville lands in the 17th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
17th
percentile, household income
12th
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: Moundsville, WV
7,934 people live in Moundsville, West Virginia - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Moundsville households earn a median of $48,590 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.4%. Home values in Moundsville run a median of $108,500, and the median resident age is 44.5 years. Educational attainment runs 12.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 46.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 3 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 50% from five years earlier. The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 52.4°F with 46.1 inches of precipitation per year and 15.8 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in West Virginia run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts West Virginia at 89.5 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $945 monthly. 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 Moundsville'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 climate and hazard context to schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Moundsville, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, 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. Within-city variation
What can 10 Census tracts reveal inside Moundsville?
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 10 Census tracts to this city.
What physical conditions frame life in Moundsville?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 52.4°F, with 46.1 inches of precipitation and 15.8 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.
What does the education layer cover for Moundsville?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 12.9% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Moundsville?
Within West Virginia, the closest population matches are Oak Hill (8,057 residents, $51,799 income); Dunbar (7,340 residents, $54,647 income); Pea Ridge (7,188 residents, $67,708 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wagoner, OK (7,934 residents); Three Rivers, MI (7,936 residents); Lincolnshire, IL (7,937 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 Moundsville?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.4%, 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
$48,590
Home value
$108,500
Value / income
2.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Moundsville?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 87.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
2.4%
Drive alone
87.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,149 workers age 16+.
Is Moundsville 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 -409 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 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
-5.1%
2025 estimate
7,659
2020 estimate
8,068
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.
Poverty rate F
14.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$48,590
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.9%
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).
Moundsville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 87/100 (A) · 89.5 index
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.4%
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $48,590
Bachelor's+ share: 14/100 (F) · 12.9%
How does Moundsville compare to other US cities?
Here's how Moundsville 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 value12% 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 Moundsville 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 Moundsville near the bottom of West Virginia's cities
Among the 390 West Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Moundsville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Moundsville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#187 of 330
43rd percentile in West Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 390
0th percentile in West Virginia
Median Home Value
#174 of 337
48th percentile in West Virginia
Poverty Rate
#153 of 389
61st percentile in West Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#221 of 390
43rd 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. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Moundsville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$108,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 88% 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
Moundsville's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,626 of 15,516
More affordable than 83% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,449 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.2×, Moundsville sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,626 of 15,516 and #2,449 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
$48,590Moundsville, WV median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Moundsville, 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 Moundsville, WV.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,934
Median Income
$48,590
Median Home Value
$108,500
Median Age
44.5
Poverty Rate
14.4%
Labor force participation
46.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.9%
Climate
Avg Temperature
52.4°F
Annual Precipitation
46.1"
Annual Snowfall
15.8"
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
Moundsville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
8,068 residents
2021
7,976 residents
2022
7,827 residents
2023
7,760 residents
2024
7,700 residents
2025
7,659 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
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
2
0
2
$0.1M
2020
3
3
0
$0.9M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
2
2
0
$0.5M
2024
3
3
0
$0.7M
Permit volume increased 50% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
87.2%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.1%
Work from Home
2.4%
Based on 3,149 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 Moundsville. 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 Moundsville 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 Moundsville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Moundsville 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, 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.