Crab Orchard has lower household incomes than 94% of U.S. towns
Only 3% work in Crab Orchard itself; outside it, Beckley draws the most (33%, 4 miles). 16.6% of residents live below the poverty line; West Virginia has 16.7%. Jobs and income earn Crab Orchard C−; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Crab Orchard
One in three of Crab Orchard works in Beckley
316 working residents, 33%, have their main job in Beckley, 4.4 miles away. That’s 11 times as many as work in Crab Orchard itself. The commute map ↓
Most Crab Orchard residents work close to home
61% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
48% of the jobs in Crab Orchard are in trade, transport and utilities, against 23% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
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; with 953 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Crab Orchard’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Crab Orchard is better than 16% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Crab Orchard’s grade up (ahead of 48% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($43,792, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Crab Orchard’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Crab Orchard could be anywhere from D to B+.
The places Crab Orchard commutes to
Where Crab Orchard clocks in
33% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Crab Orchard
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.
The kinds of work in Crab Orchard
415 jobs are based in Crab Orchard.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Crab Orchard, 2014 → 2024: 292 → 415. 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 Crab Orchard’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Crab Orchard by day and by night
On a workday 929 residents head out to work, 24 work right here, and 391 people come in from elsewhere.
About 600 people are in Crab Orchard on a workday afternoon, 47% fewer than live here.
0.44 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Commuting from Crab Orchard: about 21 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Crab Orchard workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 473 commuters (the 6% 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.
Few in Crab Orchard walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Crab Orchard is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Crab Orchard 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 504 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). 0.0% of Crab Orchard households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Crab Orchard’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Crab Orchard comes 2,726th 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 470 | Belle WV | 1,088 | $77K | 3.3% | 10.6% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 605 | Barrackville WV | 1,196 | $79K | 4.1% | 3.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 719 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,724 | Lyonsdale NY | 1,151 | $62K | 10.4% | 9.0% | 9% | C− |
| 2,725 | Sugarcreek Township PA | 1,333 | $58K | 13.6% | 7.1% | 3% | C− |
| 2,726 | Crab Orchard WV | 1,139 | $44K | 16.6% | 3.8% | 3% | C− |
| 2,727 | Ness City KS | 1,313 | $65K | 11.5% | 0.2% | 32% | C− |
| 2,728 | Ovid MI | 1,498 | $50K | 22.4% | 0.8% | 6% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Crab Orchard, the top three, the last and three more from West Virginia.
Work in the towns next to Crab Orchard
The biggest share goes to Sophia (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Crab Orchard workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crab Orchard | – | C− | B− | 21 min | $43,792 |
| MacArthur | under 1% | D | C | 21 min | $35,650 |
| Sophia | 4% | D | C | 27 min | $36,080 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Crab Orchard’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 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 Crab Orchard: questions
What is the median household income in Crab Orchard?
$43,792 (±$24,028) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Crab Orchard?
16.6%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Crab Orchard?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Crab Orchard work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Beckley (33%, 4 mi), Sophia (4%, 3 mi), Charleston (3%, 47 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Crab Orchard walkable?
Crab Orchard is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Crab Orchard without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Crab Orchard, from the people who make the trip.
More of Crab Orchard
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.