Photo: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) · CC BY-SA 2.5Household incomes in Sistersville are lower than in 92% of U.S. towns
About one in ten stay in Sistersville for work; outside it, New Martinsville is the main destination (16%, 9 miles). Poverty touches 40.8% of residents, against 16.7% across West Virginia. Sistersville grades D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Sistersville: the gist
Fewer jobs are based in Sistersville than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Sistersville fell from 885 in 2014 to 438 in 2024, −51%. 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 ↓
Sistersville and New Martinsville trade workers both ways
New Martinsville is the top workplace for Sistersville residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Sistersville come from (10% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 520 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Sistersville: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Sistersville is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Sistersville’s grade.
Unemployment (12.6%) is left out: Sistersville’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, Sistersville could be anywhere from D− to D.
The kinds of work in Sistersville
438 jobs are based in Sistersville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sistersville, 2014 → 2024: 885 → 438. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Sistersville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Sistersville’s working residents head each day
Where Sistersville clocks in
16% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Sistersville
On a workday 477 residents head out to work, 43 work right here, and 395 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 (0.84 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
About 30 minutes each way, longer than most of West Virginia
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sistersville workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 403 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.
Where in the region Sistersville works
About 24% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Sistersville is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sistersville is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across West Virginia, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 424 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). 16.9% of Sistersville households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Sistersville’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800, and where Sistersville 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 723 | Belle WV | 1,088 | $77K | 3.3% | 10.6% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 922 | Barrackville WV | 1,196 | $79K | 4.1% | 3.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,086 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,239 | Brookneal VA | 1,083 | $45K | 24.8% | 4.2% | 8% | D− |
| 5,240 | South Bend WA | 1,790 | $45K | 24.2% | 7.8% | 17% | D− |
| 5,241 | Sistersville WV | 1,319 | $46K | 40.8% | 12.6% | 8% | D− |
| 5,242 | Wayne WV | 1,383 | $27K | 25.8% | 5.5% | 6% | D− |
| 5,243 | Blackbird Township NE | 1,275 | $45K | 34.9% | 31.9% | 45% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Sistersville, 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 2024, 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 Sistersville: questions
What is the median household income in Sistersville?
$45,500 (±$15,867) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sistersville?
40.8%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sistersville?
30 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 Sistersville work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New Martinsville (16%, 9 mi), Paden City (5%, 4 mi), Parkersburg (4%, 36 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Sistersville walkable?
Sistersville is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 16% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sistersville without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sistersville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sistersville
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.