Photo: Dougtone · CC BY-SA 2.0Chester’s household incomes are lower than in 79% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income D: better than 13% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability A−: more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 30 minutes each way (West Virginia 27, U.S. 26). About one in seven work in Chester; the top destination outside it is Weirton (7%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Chester, in brief
What’s behind Chester’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Chester is better than 13% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Chester’s grade.
Unemployment (13.7%) is left out: Chester’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, Chester could be anywhere from D to C.
What the 801 jobs in Chester are
801 jobs are based in Chester. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Chester’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chester, 2013 → 2023: 2,046 → 801. 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 785 residents head out to work, 112 work right here, and 689 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.89 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
7% of working residents work in Weirton
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Chester clocks in
5% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
About 30 minutes each way, longer than most of West Virginia
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chester workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 798 commuters (the 7% 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.
Half of Chester commutes less than 14 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 17% 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.
Chester is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Chester is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.4% 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 855 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). 12.5% of Chester households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Chester’s commuters take a bus or train.
Chester is 4,193rd of 5,148 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,800 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Chester, the top three, the last and three more from West Virginia.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,308 | Bethlehem WV | 2,520 | $83K | 8.8% | 3.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,754 | Falling Waters WV | 2,183 | $88K | 4.3% | 10.8% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,756 | Shepherdstown WV | 1,522 | $64K | 6.2% | 11.9% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,191 | Ganado TX | 2,009 | $57K | 15.1% | 0.5% | 9% | D |
| 4,192 | Kerens TX | 1,508 | $57K | 16.3% | 4.8% | 11% | D |
| 4,193 | Chester WV | 2,080 | $57K | 15.6% | 13.7% | 12% | D |
| 4,194 | Wayne Township OH | 2,003 | $61K | 17.3% | 2.9% | 3% | D |
| 4,195 | Holyoke CO | 2,264 | $52K | 18.0% | 3.9% | 33% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,148 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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.
Chester and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Newell (2%). Darker towns draw more of Chester’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 Chester: questions
What is the median household income in Chester?
$56,607 (±$11,281) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chester?
15.6%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chester?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chester work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Weirton (7%, 14 mi), East Liverpool (5%, 1 mi), New Cumberland (5%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chester walkable?
Chester is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chester without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Chester, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chester
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.