Albert S. Heck Mansion · Photo: Coal town guy · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Spencer are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Spencer; the top destination outside it is Charleston (7%, 35 miles). Below the poverty line: 33.5% of residents, against 16.7% across West Virginia. For jobs and income Spencer is near the bottom of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Spencer
Spencer is where the jobs are
Spencer has 1,318 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Spencer workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Spencer’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Spencer are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 27 across West Virginia. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical West Virginia 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 650 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Spencer
On income, poverty and job access, Spencer is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Spencer’s grade.
Unemployment (16.5%) is left out: Spencer’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, Spencer stays D−.
Spencer fills up on a workday
On a workday 497 residents head out to work, 153 work right here, and 1,165 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,600 people are in Spencer on a workday afternoon, 35% more than live here.
2.0 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.
The kinds of work in Spencer
1,318 jobs are based in Spencer.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Spencer, 2013 → 2023: 1,473 → 1,318. 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 Spencer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes each way, quicker than most of West Virginia
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Spencer workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 641 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.
The daily trip into Spencer
Where Spencer clocks in
7% of workers
5% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Spencer
About 22% 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.
Driving is how Spencer gets around
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across West Virginia, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 669 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). 17.9% of Spencer households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Spencer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Spencer and other U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,420 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,444 | Bethlehem WV | 2,520 | $83K | 8.8% | 3.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,534 | Eleanor WV | 1,497 | $79K | 5.9% | 0.6% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,829 | Jellico TN | 2,126 | $41K | 27.7% | 13.1% | 14% | D− |
| 5,830 | Charlotte TX | 1,653 | $29K | 36.4% | 5.8% | 8% | D− |
| 5,831 | Spencer WV | 1,895 | $38K | 33.5% | 16.5% | 24% | D− |
| 5,832 | Machias ME | 2,078 | $34K | 25.6% | 17.4% | 37% | D− |
| 5,833 | Lone Pine CA | 1,439 | $43K | 24.5% | 2.8% | 30% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | 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 Spencer, 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 Spencer: questions
What is the median household income in Spencer?
$37,639 (±$15,428) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Spencer?
33.5%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Spencer?
21 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 Spencer work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charleston (7%, 35 mi), Parkersburg (5%, 34 mi), Ripley (3%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Spencer walkable?
Spencer is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Spencer 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 Spencer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Spencer
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.