City safety & data profile

CharlestonWV

Charleston, WV is a 47K-resident city in Kanawha County with a median household income of $65,812.

Kanawha County, West Virginia. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Charleston, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Charleston has a population larger than 77% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $203,300, and 3 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

47K
Population (place)
Top 23%
By size
$65,812
Median income (place)
$203,300
Median home (place)
15.8%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Charleston

Charleston posts a median household income higher than 30% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 3 hospitals serve the Charleston area.

Bottom 31%
by median income, US cities
3
hospitals in & near Charleston

Where Charleston income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$65,812 Bottom 30% higher than 30% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Charleston $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in WV

Population among 15 WV places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Huntington is the largest WV city on this list; Teays Valley leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in WV

Median household income among the same 15-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Teays Valley posts the highest place-level median income in WV; Huntington is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Charleston, WV beyond the headline numbers

Charleston sits inside Kanawha County, West Virginia, at roughly 38.35°N, -81.63°W. Population 46,838, $65,812 median household income. Median home value $203,300, median rent $908. Poverty rate 15.8%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

3 hospitals in/around Charleston, 2/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

Poverty in Charleston, WV stands at 15.8%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.

Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Charleston runs about 3.1 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.

13% of Charleston workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, high blood pressure departs furthest from its peer median: 45.4% in Charleston, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

At 43 years, Charleston's median age is in the oldest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Charleston from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
46,838
Charleston · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$65,812
-26% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$203,300
-51% vs avg
Median Age (place)
43
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Kanawha County): Charleston's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
177K-8%
Median Income
$60,943+32%
Median Home Value
$147,300+45%
Poverty Rate
15.7%+11%
Unemployment
5.6%-24%

Economics

Economics indicators for Charleston, WV
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$908/mo
Poverty Rate
15.8% +27% vs avg
Unemployment 6.5%
Bachelor's Degree+ 45.2%
Work From Home 13%
Public Transit 1%

Population

White 77%
African American 9.6%
Asian 2.6%
Two or More Ethnicities 8.6%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
45.4%
Obesity
40.2%
Short Sleep Duration
39.8%
Physical Inactivity
30.6%
Frequent Mental Distress
20.2%
Current Smoking
17.7%
Frequent Physical Distress
15.7%
Diabetes
15.6%
Binge Drinking
14.3%
Current Asthma
12%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 61%
Annual Checkup 82.3%

Other Measures

Coronary Heart Disease
8%
Lack of Health Insurance
7.4%
Stroke
4.1%

Hospitals 3 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
0
★★★
0
★★
1
★
0
Average Rating
2/5
Total Hospitals
3
With ER
1
CHARLESTON AREA MEDICAL CENTER
CHARLESTON · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★☆☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Charleston?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Charleston right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet WV-CHARLESTON-WV · Charleston

Charleston: 3 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-TRACE 3 on record
  • WX-LED 100% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Los Angeles

Tagged alert mix: Charleston

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 3 tagged notices on record for Charleston.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: Los Angeles, CA (3 tagged · Δ0)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Charleston; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse West Virginia state hubs · Methodology

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (3 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Los Angeles, CA 3 alerts San Antonio, TX 3 alerts Austin, TX 3 alerts Oklahoma City, OK 3 alerts

Read with this city profile

Understanding Weather Alerts

Watch vs warning vs advisory, how NOAA labels map to action
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Charleston, WV? ▼
Charleston, WV has a population of 46,838 people, located in Kanawha County, West Virginia.
What is the median household income in Charleston? ▼
The median household income in Charleston, WV is $65,812 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 15.8%.
What is the median home value in Charleston? ▼
The median home value in Charleston, WV is $203,300. Median rent is $908/month.
What are the top health concerns in Charleston? ▼
The top health indicators in Charleston include High Blood Pressure (45.4%), Obesity (40.2%), Short Sleep Duration (39.8%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Charleston? ▼
Charleston has 3 hospitals with an average rating of 2/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Charleston? ▼
The median age in Charleston, WV is 43 years. 45.2% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Charleston, both outside West Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside WV (15.8% here).

Indianapolis, IN 15.8% Amarillo, TX 15.8% Tempe, AZ 15.8% Fort Collins, CO 15.8%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside WV ($65,812 here).

New Brunswick, NJ $65,810 Terrell, TX $65,842 Dubuque, IA $65,845 Greece, NY $65,849

Compare Charleston with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

South Charleston, WV 13K Saint Albans, WV 11K Teays Valley, WV 13K Beckley, WV 17K Huntington, WV 49K Parkersburg, WV 31K Vienna, WV 11K Ashland, KY 21K
All cities in West Virginia → Compare Charleston vs South Charleston → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Charleston's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Charleston area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Charleston against West Virginia peers on any ranking lens. Explore West Virginia

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Kanawha County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.