Photo: Ljray92 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Rainelle have lower incomes than those in 98% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Rainelle itself; outside it, Lewisburg draws the most (8%, 22 miles). The poverty rate is 29.8% (West Virginia 16.7%). Rainelle grades D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Rainelle apart on work
Rainelle is where the jobs are
Rainelle has 757 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Rainelle has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Rainelle went from 542 in 2013 to 757 in 2023, +40%. The jobs ↓
Rainelle workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 32 minutes each way, against 27 across West Virginia. Over a year that’s about 245 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical 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 441 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Inside Rainelle’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Rainelle is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Rainelle’s grade.
Unemployment (2.7%) is left out: Rainelle’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Rainelle could be anywhere from D− to D.
The workday shuffle in and out of Rainelle
On a workday 393 residents head out to work, 48 work right here, and 709 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Rainelle on a workday afternoon, 27% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
In Rainelle, services account for most jobs
757 jobs are based in Rainelle.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rainelle, 2013 → 2023: 542 → 757. 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 Rainelle’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 32 minutes from Rainelle
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rainelle workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 489 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.
Who travels to work in Rainelle, and from where
Where Rainelle clocks in
8% of workers
7% of workers
4% 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.
Half of Rainelle commutes less than 25 miles
About 29% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Rainelle
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rainelle is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across West Virginia, on an EPA index of 7.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 507 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). 10.0% of Rainelle households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rainelle’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600, and where Rainelle sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 555 | Belle WV | 1,088 | $77K | 3.3% | 10.6% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 709 | Barrackville WV | 1,196 | $79K | 4.1% | 3.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 837 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,197 | Pomeroy OH | 1,514 | $33K | 39.6% | 2.8% | 10% | D− |
| 4,198 | Tenaha TX | 1,005 | $28K | 43.1% | 0.0% | 2% | D− |
| 4,199 | Rainelle WV | 1,180 | $36K | 29.8% | 2.7% | 11% | D− |
| 4,200 | Wilcox Township MI | 1,186 | $45K | 29.5% | 7.1% | 2% | D− |
| 4,201 | Amargosa Valley NV | 1,445 | $53K | 36.7% | 1.2% | 21% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Rainelle, 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 Rainelle: questions
What is the median household income in Rainelle?
$35,625 (±$13,174) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rainelle?
29.8%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rainelle?
32 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 Rainelle work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lewisburg (8%, 22 mi), Charleston (7%, 54 mi), Beckley (4%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rainelle walkable?
Rainelle is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rainelle without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rainelle, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rainelle
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.