Richwood is a very small city located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 1,607 people and just one neighborhood, Richwood is the 120th largest community in West Virginia.
Unlike some cities, Richwood isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Richwood are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Richwood is a city of service providers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Richwood who work in sales jobs (21.18%), healthcare suport services (14.03%), and food service (10.59%).
The city is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Richwood has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Richwood a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
One downside of living in Richwood is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Richwood, the average commute to work is 33.99 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the city, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative.
Richwood, even though it is a small city, has many people who use public transportation every day to get to and from work. This is a great benefit for people in the, city who have a need for low-cost transportation.
In terms of college education, the citizens of Richwood rank slightly lower than the national average. 16.89% of adults 25 and older in Richwood have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, while 21.84% of adults have a 4-year degree or higher in the average American community.
The per capita income in Richwood in 2022 was $32,039, 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 $128,156 for a family of four. However, Richwood contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Richwood home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Richwood residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Richwood include English, German, Irish, Dutch, and Welsh.
The most common language spoken in Richwood is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Greek.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
Despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 50.8%, which is higher than 98.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, this neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 26 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 93.4% of America.
Our research revealed that more commuters here take the bus to work (15.5% ride the bus) than 97.8% of all American neighborhoods. If you like the idea of leaving your car and home and hopping the bus to work, this might be a good neighborhood for you to consider.
Astoundingly, the neighborhood has one of the highest concentrations of divorcees living here than of any neighborhood, a higher concentration than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. This may be because people living here divorce more often than others, or that divorced people move here after they become divorced. If you are divorced, you will be in good company in this particular Richwood neighborhood.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Welsh and Dutch ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Welsh ancestry and 10.2% have Dutch ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.2% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Greek at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Richwood are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 94.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 18.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 67.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 30.5% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 29.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (27.1%), and 12.9% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.5% of households. Some people also speak Italian (2.2%).
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Richwood, WV, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (11.0%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (10.5%), and residents who report Dutch roots (10.2%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (9.2%), along with some French ancestry residents (6.9%), among others.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (33.4% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (77.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (15.5%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.