Coal Fork has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
0% of workers have no commute at all; West Virginia has 9%. Employers in Coal Fork report 56 jobs, against 444 working residents. Coal Fork grades B+ for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Coal Fork
Coal Fork is a place people come home to
There are 56 jobs based in Coal Fork, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Coal Fork has about 1,000 people in it, 27% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
37% of Coal Fork works in Charleston
166 working residents, 37%, have their main job in Charleston, 5.6 miles away. That’s far more as work in Coal Fork itself. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Coal Fork 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 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 444 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Coal Fork’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Coal Fork is better than 67% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Coal Fork’s grade up (2.3%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($70,212, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (29.5%) is left out: Coal Fork’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, Coal Fork could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Coal Fork on a workday afternoon
On a workday 442 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 54 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Coal Fork on a workday afternoon, 27% 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.
37% of working residents work in Charleston
Where Coal Fork clocks in
37% of workers
8% 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.
The trip to work from Coal Fork: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Coal Fork workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 529 commuters (the 0% 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.
What Coal Fork’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Coal Fork, 2013 → 2023: 132 → 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 Coal Fork’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Coal Fork’s workers travel
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.
Coal Fork is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Coal Fork is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across West Virginia, on an EPA index of 4.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 529 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). 6.0% of Coal Fork households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Coal Fork’s commuters take a bus or train.
Coal Fork is 1,197th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 799 | Belle WV | 1,088 | $77K | 3.3% | 10.6% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,016 | Barrackville WV | 1,196 | $79K | 4.1% | 3.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,195 | Plain Township OH | 1,653 | $74K | 5.3% | 8.8% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,196 | Plano KY | 1,290 | $80K | 5.3% | 8.6% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,197 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,198 | Smithville OH | 1,333 | $72K | 6.7% | 1.8% | 8% | B+ |
| 1,199 | Lancaster Township IL | 1,351 | $91K | 6.6% | 2.5% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,294 | Eleanor WV | 1,497 | $79K | 5.9% | 0.6% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Coal Fork, 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 Coal Fork: questions
What is the median household income in Coal Fork?
$70,212 (±$13,843) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Coal Fork?
2.3%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Coal Fork?
20 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Coal Fork work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charleston (37%, 6 mi), South Charleston (8%, 10 mi), Huntington (3%, 49 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Coal Fork walkable?
Coal Fork is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Coal Fork without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Coal Fork, from the people who make the trip.
More of Coal Fork
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.