Photo: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) · CC BY-SA 2.5A job hub: Buckhannon has 2.1 jobs per working resident, and 3,536 people come in to work
Measured by household income, Buckhannon is behind 82% of U.S. towns. Employers in Buckhannon report 3,962 jobs, and 1,866 of its residents work somewhere. Buckhannon grades C− for jobs and income and A+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Buckhannon
Buckhannon is where the jobs are
Buckhannon has 3,962 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 7,200 people are in town, 41% more than the 5,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Buckhannon are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 27 across West Virginia. That’s about 54 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Inside Buckhannon’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Buckhannon is better than 17% of U.S. towns, #48 of 61 in West Virginia. Unemployment holds Buckhannon’s grade up (4.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (21.7%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Buckhannon could be anywhere from D− to B−.
How a workday changes Buckhannon
On a workday 1,440 residents head out to work and 426 work right here.
About 7,200 people are in Buckhannon on a workday afternoon, 41% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
How long Buckhannon spends getting to work: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Buckhannon workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,617 commuters (the 15% 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.
Where the people who work in Buckhannon live
Where Buckhannon clocks in
4% of workers
4% of workers
3% 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.
What Buckhannon’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Buckhannon, 2014 → 2024: 3,990 → 3,962. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Buckhannon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Buckhannon goes to work
About 23% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Buckhannon
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Buckhannon is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns, #2 of 61 in West Virginia. Both inputs place Buckhannon near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,898 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). 16.0% of Buckhannon households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Buckhannon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,758 U.S. towns of 3,500 to 6,800, Buckhannon comes 3,227th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 727 | Pinch WV | 4,037 | $77K | 5.1% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,023 | Westover WV | 4,086 | $61K | 12.6% | 3.0% | 8% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,210 | Brookhaven WV | 6,212 | $88K | 10.5% | 7.0% | 2% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,225 | Haddon Township IN | 3,759 | $63K | 15.0% | 7.0% | 5% | C− |
| 3,226 | Holbrook AZ | 4,866 | $57K | 19.8% | 3.4% | 40% | C− |
| 3,227 | Buckhannon WV | 5,054 | $55K | 21.7% | 4.7% | 23% | C− |
| 3,228 | Richland Center WI | 5,020 | $52K | 16.0% | 4.6% | 37% | C− |
| 3,229 | Wright Township IN | 3,567 | $54K | 8.7% | 6.9% | 10% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,758 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Buckhannon, 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 2024, 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 Buckhannon: questions
What is the median household income in Buckhannon?
$54,615 (±$11,950) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Buckhannon?
21.7%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Buckhannon?
20 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Buckhannon work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Clarksburg (4%, 20 mi), Elkins (4%, 21 mi), Bridgeport (3%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Buckhannon walkable?
Buckhannon is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 11.0 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Buckhannon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Buckhannon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Buckhannon
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.