Friendly City Building and Jail · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainWhere Friendly earns its living
Friendly has 26 working residents in the Census job records, and no jobs of its own there. Hardly any stay in Friendly for work; outside it, Dunbar is the main destination (8%, 87 miles). Working residents average 30 minutes each way, next to 27 for West Virginia and 26 for the U.S.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How a workday changes Friendly
On a workday 26 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 0 people come in from elsewhere.
About 68 people are in Friendly on a workday afternoon, 28% fewer than live here.
0.00 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 2023, primary jobs.
Where Friendly goes to work
Where Friendly clocks in
8% of workers
8% 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.
About 30 minutes each way for Friendly’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Friendly workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 43 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.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far Friendly goes to work
About 31% 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.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
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 Friendly: questions
What is the poverty rate in Friendly?
28.5%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Friendly?
30 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 Friendly work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dunbar (8%, 87 mi), New Martinsville (8%, 14 mi), Parkersburg (8%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Friendly without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Friendly, from the people who make the trip.
More of Friendly
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.