The 10 Richest Cities In West Virginia For 2023


We analyzed 27 places in West Virginia to determine where the 1% live.

Bridgeport, Hurricane, Dunbar: These cities aren’t just some of the best places to live in West Virginia. They are also home to some of the richest people in the Mountain State.

Bridgeport in particular houses the richest residents in the state thanks, in part, to a median household income of $87,936 and a ridiculously low poverty rate of 4.4065544729849435%.

If you’re thinking of moving to one of these towns, you’ll probably need to start saving. The richest places in West Virginia share common characteristics such as having a genius level populous, sky high home prices, and a Pleasantville level of married couples.

How did we come up with these mega wealthy cities? We analyzed Census data from the 2017-2021 American Community Survey for the 25 places in West Virginia with more than 5,000 people.

For more on how we calculated the top ten, read on or skip to the end for the full list of the richest cities in West Virginia.

Rich people not your cup of tea? Feel free to check out some more reading about West Virginia:

The 10 Richest Cities In West Virginia For 2023

1. Bridgeport

Bridgeport, WV

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 9,165
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Median Income: $87,936
Unemployment Rate: 1.5%
Poverty Rate: 4.4%
More on Bridgeport: Real Estate | Photos

2. Hurricane

Hurricane, WV

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 6,901
Rank Last Year: 2 (No Change)
Median Income: $65,373
Unemployment Rate: 2.7%
Poverty Rate: 7.6%
More on Hurricane: Real Estate | Photos

3. Dunbar

Dunbar, WV

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 7,500
Rank Last Year: 7 (Up 4)
Median Income: $46,219
Unemployment Rate: 1.6%
Poverty Rate: 11.7%
More on Dunbar: Real Estate

4. Vienna

Vienna, WV

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 10,676
Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 1)
Median Income: $58,587
Unemployment Rate: 6.7%
Poverty Rate: 10.5%
More on Vienna: Real Estate | Photos

5. St. Albans

St. Albans, WV

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 10,842
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 1)
Median Income: $55,189
Unemployment Rate: 6.6%
Poverty Rate: 15.0%
More on St. Albans: Real Estate | Photos

6. Charles Town

Charles Town, WV

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 6,373
Rank Last Year: 6 (No Change)
Median Income: $79,158
Unemployment Rate: 9.1%
Poverty Rate: 9.6%
More on Charles Town: Real Estate | Photos

7. Charleston

Charleston, WV

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 49,055
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 2)
Median Income: $54,101
Unemployment Rate: 6.3%
Poverty Rate: 17.5%
More on Charleston: Real Estate | Photos

8. South Charleston

South Charleston, WV

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 13,595
Rank Last Year: 5 (Down 3)
Median Income: $54,954
Unemployment Rate: 6.2%
Poverty Rate: 18.3%
More on South Charleston: Real Estate | Photos

9. Buckhannon

Buckhannon, WV

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 5,343
Rank Last Year: 14 (Up 5)
Median Income: $46,602
Unemployment Rate: 6.1%
Poverty Rate: 19.5%
More on Buckhannon: Real Estate | Photos

10. New Martinsville

New Martinsville, WV

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 5,208
Rank Last Year: 15 (Up 5)
Median Income: $48,147
Unemployment Rate: 6.6%
Poverty Rate: 18.0%
More on New Martinsville: Real Estate | Photos

Methodology: How We Determined The Richest Places In West Virginia For 2023

Map Of The Richest Places To Live In West Virginia
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the richest places is to simply identify personal incomes. After all, rich people have really high salaries.

However, we don’t believe that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “richest places”. So we looked at this set of criteria from the newly released 2017-2021 American Community Survey:

  • Poverty Level
  • Median Household Income
  • Unemployment Rate

Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place really is. The unemployment rate tries to capture the prospects for more people to become rich. If more people are employed, the richer the future looks.

After we collected the data for all 25 places with more than 5,000 people in West Virginia, we ranked each place from 1 to 25 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the richest.

We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Rich Score” with the place having the lowest overall Rich Score, Bridgeport, crowned the “Richest City In West Virginia For 2023”. You can download the data here.

You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for all 25 places.

Summary: The Wealthiest Places In West Virginia For 2023

Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the richest places in West Virginia, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in West Virginia.

When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very top of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.

If you’re curious enough, here are the poorest cities in West Virginia, according to data:

Poorest: Morgantown
2nd Poorest: Huntington
3rd Poorest: Elkins

For more West Virginia reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Richest Cities In West Virginia

Rank City RichScore Median Income
1 Bridgeport 1.0 $87,936
2 Hurricane 2.67 $65,373
3 Dunbar 6.33 $46,219
4 Vienna 7.33 $58,587
5 St. Albans 8.33 $55,189
6 Charles Town 8.67 $79,158
7 Charleston 8.67 $54,101
8 South Charleston 8.67 $54,954
9 Buckhannon 10.67 $46,602
10 New Martinsville 10.67 $48,147
11 Wheeling 11.33 $43,483
12 Weirton 12.0 $52,775
13 Fairmont 12.33 $47,618
14 Nitro 13.67 $45,949
15 Clarksburg 14.33 $42,254
16 Moundsville 14.33 $40,471
17 Beckley 15.0 $39,845
18 Oak Hill 16.67 $45,460
19 Princeton 18.33 $39,569
20 Bluefield 18.67 $39,677
21 Parkersburg 19.33 $38,960
22 Martinsburg 20.0 $45,901
23 Elkins 20.67 $36,909
24 Huntington 21.33 $34,351
25 Morgantown 24.0 $36,991

How Is The Area In ?

Editor’s Note: Data has been updated for 2023. This is our tenth time ranking the richest cities in West Virginia.

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.