West Virginia, by the numbers

People and buying power

Across West Virginia there are 7 metropolitan areas with their own profiles on this site; Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH is the largest at 370,729 residents.

The typical owner-occupied home is valued at $162,600, 51 percent below the national figure. Money first: median household income in West Virginia is $59,608, 26 percent below the national figure. Together they say a good deal about the ticket sizes a local business can expect.

The median resident is 42.7 years old, 3.8 years above the national median. The share of adults with a bachelor's or above is 24.1%, 12 points below the US share. Work: 786,889 in the labor force, 5.4% unemployed (about the same as the US share). 74.9% of homes are lived in by their owners, 10 points above the US share.

Set against its largest metro (Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH), household income here is about the same as the Huntington metro figure, the median home value is 5 percent higher than the Huntington metro figure, and the business base per resident is 7 percent denser than the Huntington metro figure.

The local business base

How crowded is the market overall? West Virginia has 35,839 employer establishments. Business density is a first proxy for competition: 20.2 per 1,000 residents, 19 percent below the national figure. The busiest category listed below is restaurants (2,809 establishments). 1,374 of them are home-services contractors, 3.8% of everything, 1 points below the US share.

Ratio above 1.00: the trade holds a bigger share of the local business base than it does nationally; below 1.00, a smaller one.

Where competition is thickest: automobile dealers, general automotive repair and child day care services all hold a larger share of the local base than they do nationally. Automobile dealers stand out with 291 locations, 1.4 times what the national mix would predict. On the other side, concrete contractors, self-storage operators, general freight trucking and personal care services are thin: fewer establishments per resident than the US pattern. Concrete contractors are the clearest gap with 47 establishments, about half of the share they hold across the US. Roughly where the national mix would put them: roofing contractors, road and paving contractors and physicians' offices.

In absolute numbers restaurants lead with 2,809, followed by physicians' offices at 948 and legal services at 824. Adjusted for population, restaurants are the thickest on the ground (158 per 100,000), with physicians' offices and legal services next. The group picture: automotive businesses above the national pattern at 1.3 times, the home-services trades below it at about 79% of.

Reading the numbers as an advertiser

When automobile dealers, general automotive repair and child day care services are this common, customers compare. That makes the review profile and the speed of the first reply the deciding factors, and it makes conversion tracking essential so budget flows to the searches that turn into booked work. With concrete contractors, self-storage operators and general freight trucking in short supply, the map pack often has room; a complete listing and a handful of recent reviews can put a business in it. With a median age 3.8 years above the national median, the classic path of search, reviews and a phone call still carries most of the business. At 74.9% owner-occupied, home-services demand comes straight from residents rather than through landlords. Where income runs 26 percent below the national figure, financing and clear pricing belong in the ad itself, not on a later page.