25311Charleston, West Virginia

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 25311.

46out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 7% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity4346th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured45
Growth5243rd of 5,428 ZIP areas measured13
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured100
ClimateTop 31% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured75
Physical resilience5310th of 6,709 ZIP areas measured25
Access6763rd of 6,791 ZIP areas measured0
Economic stability6206th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured29
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 4 units authorized over the past twelve months, 78% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 18% of median household income and the median home is 2.2 times it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, strong wind and winter weather.

At a glance

Population
9,825
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$62,800
Bottom 35% nationally
Density
383/sq mi
25.7 sq mi of land
Median age
42.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Charleston
West Virginia
Metro area
Charleston, WV
Nearest major airport
LCK
124 mi · Rickenbacker Intl
Median home value
$137,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.0% is lower than 68% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 21,538 employed residents.

36% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 75% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,121$62,800Bottom 35%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$7,999$43,712Top 30%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate20.9%Top 17%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.1 minBottom 11%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher36.2%Top 25%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment21,538Bottom 21%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-5.4%Bottom 3%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 32%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force22,446Bottom 21%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation59.3%Bottom 45%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$58,170Bottom 12%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$45,830Bottom 11%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 47%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.0%Bottom 32%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k44k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $62,800 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Charleston, WV
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses4,320$80,230
Home Health and Personal Care Aides3,200$28,680
Retail Salespersons2,650$29,050
Cooks, Fast Food2,230$23,180
Cashiers2,170$26,280
General and Operations Managers2,160$83,190

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Charleston, WV, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 16.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Capital High SchoolKanawha County Schools1,05117.5
Ruffner Elementary SchoolKanawha County Schools27114.337%34%

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against West Virginia’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $918 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.2 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
17.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$918
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$137,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.18Bottom 21%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate55.4%Bottom 12%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5355,310Top 27%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$68$918Bottom 39%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$31,831$137,200Bottom 23%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.5%Bottom 49%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate19.0%Top 29%of 33,0282024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
13/ 100
Ranks 5243 of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
4
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.1
Bottom 5% nationally
Year over year
−78%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Charleston, WV, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 26°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.2 inches, including 31.5 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHARLESTON YEAGER AP, 2.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index57.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation46.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall31.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index40.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
40
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
57
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

25 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, strong wind and winter weather.

Inland floodingHigh
Strong windModerate
Winter weatherModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, heat wave, lightning, hail, ice storm, earthquake, avalanche, hurricane, wildfire, tornado, cold wave, drought.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Kanawha County records 4.5 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 19.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 46.3 per 100,000 residents in Kanawha County.

Homicide
4.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
46.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Kanawha County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 25311 rather than 25311 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 124 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rickenbacker IntlLCK124 mi11,902 ft
John Glenn Columbus IntlCMH133 mi10,114 ft
Tri-CitiesTRI139 mi8,000 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
46
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

25311 vs Charleston

How this ZIP area compares with Charleston as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

25311
Charleston
Median household income
$62,800
vs
$65,812
Per capita income
$43,712
vs
$49,097
Population density
383/sq mi
vs
1,510/sq mi
Median home value
$137,200
vs
$203,300
Median gross rent
$918
vs
$908
Homeownership rate
55.4%
vs
63.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
36.2%
vs
45.2%
Poverty rate
20.9%
vs
15.8%
Median age
42.2
vs
43.0

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.