Beckley is a medium-sized city located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 16,515 people and six associated neighborhoods, Beckley is the ninth largest community in West Virginia.Unlike some cities, Beckley isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Beckley are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Beckley is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Beckley who work in sales jobs (12.34%), office and administrative support (10.70%), and teaching (10.27%). One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 7.27% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 18.02 minutes getting to work every day.The education level of Beckley citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 29.17% of adults in Beckley have at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Beckley in 2022 was $31,431, which is upper middle income relative to West Virginia, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $125,724 for a family of four. However, Beckley contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Beckley is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Beckley home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Beckley residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Beckley include English, German, Irish, Italian, and Scottish. The most common language spoken in Beckley is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.
