These Are The 10 Best Cities For Hippies In West Virginia

You might think that the whole hippie movement has faded away, but the truth is, there are plenty of hippies out there in West Virginia.

While they aren’t necessarily in your face all the time with war protests and the next Woodstock isn’t being planned any time soon, we thought it would be fun to look at which cities in the Mountain State where the most hippies would live.

And, after crunching the data, you know what? It was pretty spot on, we have to say.

How do you decide where the most hippies live? By the number of yoga studios, organic markets, and most importantly, where the liberals live in droves.

Using that criteria, it’s not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where hippies might live in West Virginia, and then put out a list.

So, put on your tie dye shirt and your sandals as you go through this list with us.

After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list of the 10 best cities for hippies in West Virginia:

1. Dunbar
2. Nitro
3. South Charleston (Photos)
4. Morgantown (Photos)
5. Hurricane (Photos)
6. Vienna (Photos)
7. Buckhannon (Photos)
8. St. Albans (Photos)
9. Martinsburg (Photos)
10. Oak Hill (Photos)

Read on below to see where your town ranked, young flower child.

And if you already knew these places were hippie heavens, check out the best places to live in West Virginia or the safest places to live in West Virginia.

How do you determine the most beatnik city in West Virginia?

In order to rank the best cities for hippies in West Virginia, we had to determine what criteria defines a hippie.

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the Google Places API, the Census’s 2010-2014 American Community Survey, and Voter Registration data, this is the criteria we used:

• Number of yoga studios per capita
• Number of organic markets per capita
• Number of pet adoption centers per capita
• Number of vegan restaurants per capita
• Number of thrift stores per capita
• Each city’s liberal voting population

Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a ~4.5 mile radius of a city’s center. The average city in America is about 18 square miles.

All of these results are listed in a per capita basis, meaning number of stores per person in a city. Additionally, we limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 5,000 people.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 26 in each category, where 1 was the most hippie.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a hippie index.

And finally, we crowned the city with the highest hippie index the ‘Best City for Hippies In West Virginia.’ We’re lookin’ at you, Dunbar.

Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in hippie central. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the places in the state from hippiest to most square.

1. Dunbar

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.13
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.25
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.38
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.13
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.4
Dunbar is a city in Kanawha County, West Virginia, along the Kanawha River. The population was 7,907 at the 2010 census.

2. Nitro

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.15
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.15
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.29
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.15
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.31

3. South Charleston

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.37
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.15
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.22
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.07
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.05

4. Morgantown

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.3
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.1
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.17
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.5
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.33
Morgantown is a city in and the county seat of Monongalia County, West Virginia, situated along the banks of the Monongahela River. With a permanent population of 31,073 per the 2015 U.S. Census estimates, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia. The Morgantown metropolitan area has a population of 138,176, and is the 3rd largest in West Virginia. West Virginia University adds several thousand seasonal residents to the city and surrounding area from September through May. Morgantown is best known as the home of West Virginia University and the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit system.

5. Hurricane

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.47
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.16
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.16
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.16
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.63
Hurricane /hrkn/ is a city in Putnam County, West Virginia, in the United States. The population was 6,284 at the 2010 census.

6. Vienna

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.19
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.0
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.19
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.38
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.22

7. Buckhannon

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.18
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.35
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.18
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.18
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.53
Buckhannon is the only incorporated city in, and the county seat of, Upshur County, West Virginia, United States, and is located along the Buckhannon River. The population was 5,639 at the 2010 census. Buckhannon is home to West Virginia Wesleyan College and the West Virginia Strawberry Festival, held annually on the third week of May. The city is located 115 miles northeast from the capital city of Charleston and 140 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

8. St. Albans

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.09
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.09
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.18
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.09
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.82
St. Albans is a city in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Kanawha and Coal Rivers. The population was 11,044 at the 2010 census.

9. Martinsburg

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.11
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.17
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.11
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.11
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.46
Martinsburg is a city in and the county seat of Berkeley County, West Virginia, United States, in the tip of the state’s Eastern Panhandle region. Its population was 17,687 in the 2016 census estimate, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the ninth-largest municipality in the state. Martinsburg is part of the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.

10. Oak Hill

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.12
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.0
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.12
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.12
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.97
Oak Hill is a city in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States and is the primary city within the Oak Hill, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area. The micropolitan area is also included in the Beckley-Oak Hill, WV Combined Statistical Area. The population was 7,730 at the 2010 census. Country singer Hank Williams was discovered to be dead while the car in which he was a passenger was stopped in Oak Hill, and Oak Hill is generally accepted to be his place of death.

There You Have It — The Hippies Of West Virginia

If you’re measuring the locations in West Virginia where there are lots of liberals, and there are many options for vegan food, yoga and thrift stores, this is an accurate list.

If you’re curious, here are the most square places in West Virginia:

1. Moundsville
2. Weirton
3. Bluefield

For more West Virginia reading , check out:

• These Are The 10 Most Boring Places In West Virginia
• These Are The 10 Best Places To Live In West Virginia According To Science
• These Are The 10 Most Ghetto Cities In West Virginia

Detailed List Of The Hippiest Cities In West Virginia