Photo: Justin A. Wilcox from Washington, D.C., United States · CC BY-SA 2.0A job hub: Romney has 1.8 jobs per working resident, and 1,255 people come in to work
1,360 jobs are based in Romney, against 743 working residents. Romney grades D− for jobs and income and A for walkability. Measured by household income, Romney is behind 89% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Romney
Romney is where the jobs are
Romney has 1,360 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Romney workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 35 minutes each way, against 27 across West Virginia. Over a year that’s about 268 hours of commuting, 61 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Nearly all the work in Romney is services
89% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 0% 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; with 743 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Romney’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Romney is better than 4% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Romney’s grade.
Unemployment (10.3%) is left out: Romney’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, Romney could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Who commutes out of Romney, and who commutes in
On a workday 638 residents head out to work and 105 work right here.
About 2,400 people are in Romney on a workday afternoon, 35% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
A commute of about 35 minutes in Romney
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Romney workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 646 commuters (the 5% 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.
Romney is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Romney, 2013 → 2023: 1,885 → 1,360. 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 Romney’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Romney
Where Romney clocks in
7% of workers
6% 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.
Miles to work from Romney
About 27% 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.
Romney is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Romney is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Romney 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 678 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). 17.6% of Romney households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Romney’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Romney sits among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,395 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,507 | Eleanor WV | 1,497 | $79K | 5.9% | 0.6% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,913 | Falling Waters WV | 2,183 | $88K | 4.3% | 10.8% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,685 | Bryson City NC | 1,525 | $44K | 24.3% | 1.0% | 20% | D− |
| 5,686 | Fairmont NC | 2,231 | $37K | 29.0% | 7.8% | 8% | D− |
| 5,687 | Romney WV | 1,767 | $49K | 25.9% | 10.3% | 14% | D− |
| 5,688 | Jackson Township MO | 1,221 | $55K | 20.9% | 7.5% | 4% | D− |
| 5,689 | Lakeview WA | 1,584 | $46K | 18.5% | 13.7% | 1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Romney, 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 Romney: questions
What is the median household income in Romney?
$49,286 (±$17,254) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Romney?
25.9%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Romney?
35 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Romney work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Moorefield (7%, 22 mi), Winchester (6%, 33 mi), Keyser (2%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Romney walkable?
Romney is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.3 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Romney 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 Romney, from the people who make the trip.
More of Romney
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.