Summers County Courthouse · Photo: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) · CC BY-SA 3.0 usHinton’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Hinton D−; getting around on foot earns it A. Below the poverty line: 35.0% of residents, next to 16.7% for West Virginia as a whole. About one in five stay in Hinton for work; outside it, Beckley is the main destination (11%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Hinton, in a few figures
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Hinton
On income, poverty and job access, Hinton is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Hinton’s grade up (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (3.9%) is left out: Hinton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Hinton stays D−.
What the 1,096 jobs in Hinton are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hinton, 2013 → 2023: 1,040 → 1,096. 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 Hinton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Hinton: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 609 residents head out to work, 130 work right here, and 966 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Hinton on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.48 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.
Where Hinton’s working residents head each day
Where Hinton clocks in
11% of workers
5% 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.
Hinton’s commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hinton workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 621 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.
How many miles Hinton commutes
About 24% 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.
Hinton 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, Hinton is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Hinton 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 662 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). 17.5% of Hinton households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hinton’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Hinton compares with U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,384 | Bethlehem WV | 2,520 | $83K | 8.8% | 3.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,638 | Kenova WV | 2,841 | $54K | 9.0% | 0.0% | 9% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,858 | Falling Waters WV | 2,183 | $88K | 4.3% | 10.8% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,230 | Pineville KY | 1,552 | $25K | 34.0% | 15.0% | 24% | D− |
| 5,231 | Macon MS | 2,432 | $32K | 34.7% | 8.5% | 24% | D− |
| 5,232 | Hinton WV | 2,149 | $38K | 35.0% | 3.9% | 18% | D− |
| 5,233 | Springfield Township MI | 1,640 | $49K | 27.6% | 2.7% | 1% | D− |
| 5,234 | Big Creek Township MI | 2,739 | $48K | 18.3% | 13.3% | 15% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Hinton, 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 Hinton: questions
What is the median household income in Hinton?
$37,610 (±$5,527) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hinton?
35.0%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hinton?
26 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 Hinton work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Beckley (11%, 17 mi), Charleston (5%, 62 mi), Princeton (2%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hinton walkable?
Hinton is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.8 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hinton 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 Hinton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hinton
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.