Photo: Aaron F. Stone · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes put Welch near the very bottom of U.S. towns
Welch grades D− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Measured by household income, Welch is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. 28.2% of residents live below the poverty line, where West Virginia as a whole has 16.7%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Welch apart on work
Welch is where the jobs are
Welch has 1,560 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Welch are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 27 across West Virginia. That’s about 92 hours a year less on the road than the typical West Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 748 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Welch: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Welch is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #61 of 61 in West Virginia. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Welch’s grade.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Welch’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, Welch stays D−.
Welch fills up on a workday
On a workday 536 residents head out to work, 212 work right here, and 1,348 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,200 people are in Welch on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
2.1 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.
About 15 minutes each way for Welch’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Welch workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 400 commuters (the 8% 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.
Miles to work from Welch
About 34% 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.
Where Welch’s workers come from
Where Welch clocks in
4% of workers
2% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Welch
1,560 jobs are based in Welch.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Welch, 2013 → 2023: 2,228 → 1,560. 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 Welch’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Driving is how Welch gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Welch is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #37 of 61 in West Virginia. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across West Virginia, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 434 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). 16.7% of Welch households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 5% of Welch’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 2,400 to 4,600, and where Welch sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 717 | Pinch WV | 4,037 | $77K | 5.1% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,019 | Williamstown WV | 2,922 | $89K | 5.2% | 1.9% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,408 | Bethlehem WV | 2,520 | $83K | 8.8% | 3.0% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,366 | Jasper FL | 3,444 | $50K | 34.1% | 7.2% | 7% | D− |
| 4,367 | Gouverneur NY | 3,560 | $36K | 27.3% | 12.0% | 24% | D− |
| 4,368 | Welch WV | 3,389 | $33K | 28.2% | 0.0% | 28% | D− |
| 4,369 | Richfield Township MI | 3,575 | $47K | 29.6% | 10.8% | 7% | D− |
| 4,370 | Jackson AL | 4,452 | $38K | 26.1% | 18.4% | 23% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,402 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Welch, 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 Welch: questions
What is the median household income in Welch?
$32,969 (±$11,733) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Welch?
28.2%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Welch?
15 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Welch work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charleston (4%, 64 mi), Princeton (2%, 28 mi), Beckley (2%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Welch walkable?
Welch is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Welch without a car?
5% 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 Welch, from the people who make the trip.
More of Welch
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.