Photo: Antony-22 · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Parsons trail those of 96% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Parsons D−; getting around on foot earns it B. Below the poverty line: 23.6% of residents; West Virginia has 16.7%. About one in four work in Parsons; the top destination outside it is Elkins (8%, 15 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Parsons stands out on work
The figures behind Parsons’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Parsons is better than 2% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Parsons’ grade.
Unemployment (15.2%) is left out: Parsons’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, Parsons stays D−.
How long Parsons spends getting to work: about 32 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Parsons workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 421 commuters (the 10% 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.
In and out of Parsons on a workday
On a workday 429 residents head out to work, 134 work right here, and 538 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 (1.19 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 Parsons’ working residents head each day
Where Parsons clocks in
8% of workers
4% 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.
The 672 jobs based in Parsons
672 jobs are based in Parsons.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Parsons, 2013 → 2023: 733 → 672. 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 Parsons’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Parsons to work
About 16% 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.
The commute in Parsons is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Parsons is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across West Virginia, on an EPA index of 6.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 469 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). 18.5% of Parsons households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Parsons’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Parsons compares with 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,695 | Fullerton NE | 1,228 | $48K | 26.9% | 3.2% | 18% | D− |
| 4,696 | Salina OK | 1,127 | $43K | 32.6% | 9.7% | 15% | D− |
| 4,697 | Parsons WV | 1,282 | $41K | 23.6% | 15.2% | 24% | D− |
| 4,698 | Brown Township IN | 1,102 | $41K | 24.6% | 6.3% | 5% | D− |
| 4,699 | Marion Township OH | 1,481 | $35K | 32.7% | 3.3% | 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 Parsons, 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 Parsons: questions
What is the median household income in Parsons?
$40,547 (±$8,339) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Parsons?
23.6%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Parsons?
32 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Parsons work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Elkins (8%, 15 mi), Thomas (4%, 11 mi), Morgantown (2%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Parsons walkable?
Parsons is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Parsons 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 Parsons, from the people who make the trip.
More of Parsons
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.