Photo: Charles Johnson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · Public domainPoint Pleasant’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
About one in five stay in Point Pleasant for work; outside it, Green Township is the main destination (6%, 8 miles). 24.4% of residents are in poverty, against 16.7% across West Virginia. For jobs and income Point Pleasant is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (C+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Point Pleasant stands out on work
Point Pleasant trades workers with the towns around it
Point Pleasant has about as many jobs (1,758) as working residents (1,476), but they are mostly different people: 1,172 residents leave for work each day while 1,454 people come in. Only 17% of the jobs in Point Pleasant are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Point Pleasant are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 27 across West Virginia. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical West Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
Nearly all the work in Point Pleasant is services
86% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 1% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
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.
Point Pleasant’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Point Pleasant’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Point Pleasant could be anywhere from D− to C+.
The daily flow of workers through Point Pleasant
On a workday 1,172 residents head out to work, 304 work right here, and 1,454 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.
About 22 minutes to work from Point Pleasant
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Point Pleasant workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,058 commuters (the 4% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Point Pleasant
1,758 jobs are based in Point Pleasant.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Point Pleasant, 2013 → 2023: 2,209 → 1,758. 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 Point Pleasant’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where people from Point Pleasant work
Where Point Pleasant clocks in
6% of workers
5% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Point Pleasant
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.
In Point Pleasant, most people drive to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.5% across West Virginia.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,104 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). 8.7% of Point Pleasant households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Point Pleasant’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Point Pleasant sits among U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,200
| # | 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 729 | Pinch WV | 4,037 | $77K | 5.1% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,041 | Williamstown WV | 2,922 | $89K | 5.2% | 1.9% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,435 | Culloden WV | 3,040 | $73K | 11.8% | 0.0% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,148 | Bamberg SC | 2,920 | $50K | 31.8% | 21.8% | 14% | D− |
| 4,149 | Breckenridge TX | 5,123 | $48K | 20.2% | 9.3% | 33% | D− |
| 4,150 | Point Pleasant WV | 3,869 | $38K | 24.4% | 8.1% | 21% | D− |
| 4,151 | Ladysmith WI | 3,172 | $42K | 19.0% | 10.2% | 37% | D− |
| 4,152 | East Porterville CA | 5,066 | $41K | 42.7% | 19.6% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,264 | 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 Point Pleasant, the top three, the last and three more from West Virginia.
Next door to Point Pleasant
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Point Pleasant workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Pleasant | – | D− | C+ | 22 min | $37,563 |
| Henderson | under 2% | — | — | 17 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Henderson: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Point Pleasant’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Point Pleasant: questions
What is the median household income in Point Pleasant?
$37,563 (±$9,686) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Point Pleasant?
24.4%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Point Pleasant?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Point Pleasant work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Green Township (6%, 8 mi), Huntington (5%, 34 mi), Charleston (5%, 44 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Point Pleasant walkable?
Point Pleasant is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Point Pleasant without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Point Pleasant, from the people who make the trip.
More of Point Pleasant
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.