Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Most of Athens commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
Measured by household income, Athens is behind 79% of U.S. towns. Athens has 56 jobs; 311 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Athens is better than 11% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Athens apart on work
Fewer jobs are based in Athens than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Athens fell from 645 in 2013 to 56 in 2023, −91%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Athens is a place people come home to
There are 56 jobs based in Athens, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Athens are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 27 across West Virginia. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical West Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 311 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Athens earns its Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Athens’ grade.
Unemployment (5.7%) is left out: Athens’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Athens could be anywhere from D− to C+.
What Athens’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Athens, 2013 → 2023: 645 → 56. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Athens’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Athens, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 310 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 55 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Athens on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 18 minutes each way, quicker than most of West Virginia
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Athens workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 403 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across West Virginia: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
24% of working residents work in Princeton
Where Athens clocks in
24% of workers
4% of workers
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Half of Athens commutes less than 9 miles
About 20% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most of Athens commutes by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 19.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across West Virginia, on an EPA index of 5.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 456 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 10.6% of Athens households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Athens’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Athens ranks: 3,458th of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 555 | Belle WV | 1,088 | $77K | 3.3% | 10.6% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 709 | Barrackville WV | 1,196 | $79K | 4.1% | 3.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 837 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,456 | Mount Gilead NC | 1,187 | $59K | 16.8% | 7.3% | 8% | D |
| 3,457 | Ferron UT | 1,522 | $71K | 17.7% | 7.6% | 8% | D |
| 3,458 | Athens WV | 1,184 | $57K | 19.4% | 5.7% | <1% | D |
| 3,459 | Burnham ME | 1,108 | $59K | 13.6% | 6.2% | 4% | D |
| 3,460 | Benwood WV | 1,196 | $44K | 29.3% | 3.1% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Athens, the top three, the last and three more from West Virginia.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Athens: questions
What is the median household income in Athens?
$56,667 (±$28,384) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Athens?
19.4%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Athens?
18 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Athens work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Princeton (24%, 6 mi), Bluefield (4%, 15 mi), Beckley (4%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Athens walkable?
Athens is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 19% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Athens without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Athens, from the people who make the trip.
More of Athens
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.