Photo: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) · CC BY-SA 2.5Sophia has lower household incomes than 98% of U.S. towns
38.0% of residents are in poverty, where West Virginia as a whole has 16.7%. For jobs and income Sophia is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (C). Only 4% work in Sophia itself; outside it, Beckley draws the most (20%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Sophia
Sophia has far more jobs than workers
Sophia has 851 jobs, 3.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,700 people are in town, 56% more than the 1,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
Sophia makes and builds things
49% of the jobs based in Sophia are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Sophia residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 18%. 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 249 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Sophia gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Sophia’s grade up (ahead of 41% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (12.4%) is left out: Sophia’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, Sophia stays D.
In and out of Sophia on a workday
On a workday 239 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 841 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Sophia on a workday afternoon, 56% more than live here.
3.4 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 Sophia, 49% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
851 jobs are based in Sophia.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sophia, 2013 → 2023: 1,029 → 851. 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 Sophia’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting in to Sophia: where workers come from
Where Sophia clocks in
20% of workers
8% of workers
3% 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.
From Sophia, about 27 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sophia workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 459 commuters (the 9% 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.
Half of Sophia commutes less than 12 miles
About 23% 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.
In Sophia, the car does most of the 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 502 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). 7.3% of Sophia households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sophia’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Sophia comes 3,312th on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 470 | Belle WV | 1,088 | $77K | 3.3% | 10.6% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 605 | Barrackville WV | 1,196 | $79K | 4.1% | 3.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 719 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,310 | Creighton NE | 1,113 | $50K | 14.5% | 4.3% | 29% | D |
| 3,311 | Salineville OH | 1,149 | $48K | 21.5% | 2.2% | 3% | D |
| 3,312 | Sophia WV | 1,076 | $36K | 38.0% | 12.4% | 4% | D |
| 3,313 | Manistique Township MI | 1,066 | $53K | 14.7% | 8.0% | 3% | D |
| 3,314 | Bedford Township OH | 1,212 | $61K | 24.1% | 14.0% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Sophia, the top three, the last and three more from West Virginia.
The towns around Sophia
The biggest share goes to Crab Orchard (1%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sophia workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sophia | – | D | C | 27 min | $36,080 |
| Crab Orchard | 1% | C− | B− | 21 min | $43,792 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sophia’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 Sophia: questions
What is the median household income in Sophia?
$36,080 (±$4,884) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sophia?
38.0%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sophia?
27 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sophia work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Beckley (20%, 7 mi), Charleston (8%, 49 mi), South Charleston (3%, 50 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sophia walkable?
Sophia is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sophia without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sophia, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sophia
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.