Henry Clay Furnace · Photo: Brian Masney · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Cheat Lake commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Cheat Lake A−; getting around on foot earns it C−. 2,041 jobs are based in Cheat Lake, against 4,609 working residents. Measured by household income, Cheat Lake is ahead of 87% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cheat Lake at work: what stands out
Most Cheat Lake residents work close to home
71% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
40% of Cheat Lake works in Morgantown
1,855 working residents, 40%, have their main job in Morgantown, 5.6 miles away. That’s 7 times as many as work in Cheat Lake itself. The commute map ↓
Cheat Lake has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Cheat Lake went from 1,322 in 2013 to 2,041 in 2023, +54%. The jobs ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Income, poverty and work: Cheat Lake’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cheat Lake is better than 84% of U.S. towns, #3 of 61 in West Virginia. Household income is its strongest input ($117,014, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 53% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cheat Lake could be anywhere from B to A+.
Half of Cheat Lake commutes less than 6 miles
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.
40% of working residents work in Morgantown
Where Cheat Lake clocks in
40% of workers
3% of workers
2% 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.
The kinds of work in Cheat Lake
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cheat Lake, 2013 → 2023: 1,322 → 2,041. 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 Cheat Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Cheat Lake on a workday afternoon
On a workday 4,324 residents head out to work, 285 work right here, and 1,756 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,300 people are in Cheat Lake on a workday afternoon, 24% 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.
The trip to work from Cheat Lake: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cheat Lake workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,059 commuters (the 14% 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.
In Cheat Lake, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cheat Lake is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns, #57 of 61 in West Virginia. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.5% across West Virginia.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,866 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). 3.3% of Cheat Lake households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cheat Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cheat Lake is 636th of 2,507 U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 476 | Teays Valley WV | 14,151 | $109K | 5.1% | 2.0% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 588 | Bridgeport WV | 9,427 | $100K | 3.9% | 2.3% | 28% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 634 | Chippewa Township OH | 9,853 | $80K | 4.6% | 2.7% | 7% | A− |
| 635 | East Renton Highlands WA | 12,582 | $143K | 3.1% | 6.0% | 1% | A− |
| 636 | Cheat Lake WV | 10,902 | $117K | 6.5% | 2.2% | 6% | A− |
| 637 | Willowbrook IL | 9,126 | $99K | 6.6% | 4.4% | 3% | A− |
| 638 | Fort Mitchell KY | 8,751 | $86K | 8.1% | 2.4% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,187 | Cross Lanes WV | 9,671 | $64K | 5.1% | 3.5% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Cheat Lake, the top three, the last and three more from West Virginia.
Cheat Lake and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Brookhaven (1%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cheat Lake workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheat Lake | – | A− | C− | 24 min | $117,014 |
| Brookhaven | 1% | B− | B− | 20 min | $88,438 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cheat Lake’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Cheat Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Cheat Lake?
$117,014 (±$19,407) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cheat Lake?
6.5%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cheat Lake?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cheat Lake work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Morgantown (40%, 6 mi), Westover (3%, 8 mi), Fairmont (2%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cheat Lake walkable?
Cheat Lake is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cheat Lake without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cheat Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cheat Lake
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.