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Place dossier plate
SheetWV-SOUTH-CHARLESTON-WV · South Charleston, WV 13,594 pop · income 35th 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 South Charleston
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest South Charleston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Beckley · lowest
39,939
Beckley · lowest
39,939 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #1
Strasburg · near
59,614
Strasburg · near
59,614 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #2
South Charles… · this city
59,616
South Charles… · this city
59,616 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #3
Spencer · near
59,618
Spencer · near
59,618 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #4
Floresville · near
59,618
Floresville · near
59,618 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #5
Churubusco · near
59,621
Churubusco · near
59,621 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #6
Hockessin · highest
172,695
Hockessin · highest
172,695 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 South Charleston 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: 13,594.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
South Charleston - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, South Charleston lands in the 35th percentile for household income and the 2nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
35th
percentile, household income
25th
percentile, home value
5th
percentile, median rent
2nd
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: South Charleston, WV
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 13,594 residents in South Charleston, a small town within West Virginia. Households in South Charleston report a median income of $59,616 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 21.4%. Typical homes in South Charleston are valued around $144,800, and the median resident age is 41.1 years. About 35.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 7 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Low Activity). South Charleston's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 6008.6 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts West Virginia's average monthly utility costs around $220 (state average). 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 South Charleston'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 reported crime to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For South Charleston, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in South Charleston?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 6008.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 163% higher 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.
What does the journey to work look like in South Charleston?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.7%. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for South Charleston?
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 Teays Valley (13,961 residents, $106,798 income); Clarksburg (15,829 residents, $46,859 income); St. Albans (10,637 residents, $58,788 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Warrensville Heights, OH (13,585 residents); Martinsville, VA (13,584 residents); Miami Springs, FL (13,606 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.
How far does income reach against housing in South Charleston?
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 2.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 21.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 South Charleston?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 35.3% 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.
Poverty estimate
21.4%
Bachelor's degree+
35.3%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is South Charleston growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -762 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 7 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
13,834
2025 estimate
13,072
Period change
-5.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 21.4% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
89.5 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, West Virginia average
D
City profile score · South Charleston, WV
42/100
5 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 B-
35.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$59,616
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
489 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
21.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
South Charleston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 87/100 (A) · 89.5 index
Bachelor's+ share: 67/100 (B-) · 35.3%
Household income: 34/100 (F) · $59,616
Violent crime: 17/100 (F) · 489 /100k
Poverty rate: 11/100 (F) · 21.4%
Where South Charleston sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
South Charleston'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 - South Charleston highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
South Charleston, WV (this city): home $144,800, crime 6,009/100k
Martinsville, VA : home $92,500, crime 1,518/100k
Fruita, CO : home $361,500, crime 781/100k
Clarksburg, WV : home $114,600, crime 2,592/100k
St. Albans, WV : home $131,800, crime 2,313/100k
Vienna, WV : home $155,500, crime 3,463/100k
Beckley, WV : home $148,800, crime 8,517/100k
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 South Charleston compare to other US cities?
Where South Charleston sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value25% pricier than other cities
Median rent5% pricier than other cities
Safety2% 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: South Charleston ranks #43 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 South Charleston 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 South Charleston near the bottom of West Virginia's cities
Among the 390 West Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, South Charleston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares South Charleston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#107 of 330
68th percentile in West Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 390
0th percentile in West Virginia
Median Home Value
#98 of 337
71st percentile in West Virginia
Poverty Rate
#92 of 389
76th percentile in West Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#47 of 390
88th 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
35th percentile nationally for median household income · 2nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
South Charleston's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
South Charleston'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 South Charleston's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$144,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 75% 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
South Charleston's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,643 of 15,516
More affordable than 77% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#306 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.4×, South Charleston sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,643 of 15,516 and #306 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$59,616South Charleston, WV median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context South Charleston, 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 South Charleston, WV.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)35.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)21.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
13,594
Median Income
$59,616
Median Home Value
$144,800
Median Age
41.1
Poverty Rate
21.4%
Labor force participation
58.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
35.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
6008.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
488.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
5519.9
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.
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
South Charleston's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
13,834 residents
2021
13,619 residents
2022
13,397 residents
2023
13,260 residents
2024
13,165 residents
2025
13,072 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
7
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
1
1
0
$0.4M
2023
7
7
0
$2.5M
2024
7
7
0
$2.5M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.7%
Carpool
9.2%
Public Transit
1.9%
Walk
2.7%
Work from Home
8.3%
Based on 6,360 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 South Charleston. 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 South Charleston 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 South Charleston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How South Charleston 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, 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.