New River Company General Office Building · Photo: Coal town guy · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Mount Hope are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
32.3% of residents are in poverty, where West Virginia as a whole has 16.7%. Jobs and income earn Mount Hope D; getting around on foot earns it B−. Only 2% stay in Mount Hope for work; outside it, Beckley is the main destination (20%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Mount Hope, in brief
Fewer jobs are based in Mount Hope than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Mount Hope fell from 438 in 2013 to 156 in 2023, −64%. 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 ↓
Mount Hope is a place people come home to
There are 156 jobs based in Mount Hope, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Mount Hope has about 830 people in it, 33% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Mount Hope 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 560 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Mount Hope’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Mount Hope is better than 6% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Mount Hope’s grade up (ahead of 41% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($34,375, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (14.6%) is left out: Mount Hope’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, Mount Hope stays D.
What the 156 jobs in Mount Hope are
156 jobs are based in Mount Hope.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Hope, 2013 → 2023: 438 → 156. 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 Mount Hope’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Mount Hope for work, and who comes in
On a workday 551 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 147 people come in from elsewhere.
About 830 people are in Mount Hope on a workday afternoon, 33% fewer than live here.
0.28 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.
Mount Hope’s commute takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Hope workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 426 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.
Where the trip to work from Mount Hope ends
Where Mount Hope clocks in
20% of workers
5% 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.
How far Mount Hope’s workers travel
About 23% 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.
Few in Mount Hope walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Hope is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Mount Hope 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 451 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). 19.7% of Mount Hope households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Hope’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mount Hope places 4,284th of 4,866 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 633 | Belle WV | 1,088 | $77K | 3.3% | 10.6% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 805 | Barrackville WV | 1,196 | $79K | 4.1% | 3.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 953 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,282 | Belle MO | 1,379 | $55K | 21.8% | 4.4% | 8% | D |
| 4,283 | Altamont TN | 1,203 | $41K | 15.9% | 13.0% | 14% | D |
| 4,284 | Mount Hope WV | 1,234 | $34K | 32.3% | 14.6% | 2% | D |
| 4,285 | Strong ME | 1,122 | $48K | 13.9% | 0.0% | 7% | D |
| 4,286 | Easton WI | 1,078 | $54K | 19.5% | 7.2% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Mount Hope, 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 Mount Hope: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Hope?
$34,375 (±$18,426) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Hope?
32.3%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Hope?
20 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 Mount Hope work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Beckley (20%, 9 mi), Fayetteville (6%, 12 mi), Charleston (5%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Hope walkable?
Mount Hope is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Hope without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 20% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Hope, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Hope
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.