Photo: Alainmoscoso · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Keyser have lower incomes than those in 91% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 31.8% of residents; West Virginia has 16.7%. The two grades for Keyser are D− for jobs and income and A for walkability. About one in ten stay in Keyser for work; outside it, Cumberland is the main destination (4%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Keyser in brief
Keyser trades workers with the towns around it
Keyser has about as many jobs (1,808) as working residents (1,840), but they are mostly different people: 1,632 residents leave for work each day while 1,600 people come in. Only 12% of the jobs in Keyser are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Keyser are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 27 across West Virginia. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical West Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Keyser than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Keyser fell from 2,773 in 2013 to 1,808 in 2023, −35%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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.
What’s behind Keyser’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Keyser’s grade up (ahead of 31% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (12.9%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Keyser could be anywhere from D− to D.
Who leaves Keyser for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,632 residents head out to work, 208 work right here, and 1,600 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 (0.98 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.
About 17 minutes each way for Keyser’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Keyser workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,462 commuters (the 11% 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.
The kinds of work in Keyser
1,808 jobs are based in Keyser.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Keyser, 2013 → 2023: 2,773 → 1,808. 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 Keyser’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Keyser
About 32% 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.
Where Keyser goes to work
Where Keyser clocks in
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.
In Keyser, walking beats the bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,650 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 21.8% of Keyser households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Keyser’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Keyser compares with U.S. towns of 3,300 to 6,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 722 | Pinch WV | 4,037 | $77K | 5.1% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,620 | Pleasant Valley WV | 3,457 | $68K | 9.0% | 2.2% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,059 | Westover WV | 4,086 | $61K | 12.6% | 3.0% | 7% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,763 | Linton IN | 5,245 | $45K | 17.3% | 13.3% | 22% | D− |
| 3,764 | Caro MI | 4,258 | $42K | 28.7% | 9.1% | 21% | D− |
| 3,765 | Keyser WV | 4,777 | $47K | 31.8% | 12.9% | 11% | D− |
| 3,766 | Alma GA | 3,400 | $37K | 26.2% | 1.5% | 32% | D− |
| 3,767 | Paoli IN | 3,596 | $43K | 25.2% | 7.8% | 18% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,867 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Keyser, 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 Keyser: questions
What is the median household income in Keyser?
$46,955 (±$10,365) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Keyser?
31.8%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Keyser?
17 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Keyser work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cumberland (4%, 19 mi), Moorefield (3%, 26 mi), Bier (2%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Keyser walkable?
Keyser is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.4 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Keyser without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 22% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Keyser, from the people who make the trip.
More of Keyser
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.