Harrison County, WV

County Profile

64,984 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Harrison County, WV.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

56out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 28% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 44% of 1,255 counties58
Growth1150th of 1,226 counties21
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
ClimateTop 28% of 1,254 counties74
Physical resilience952nd of 1,255 counties39
Access1152nd of 1,255 counties47
Economic stability966th of 1,255 counties43
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.7% and median household income $60,377, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 104 units authorized over the past twelve months, 35% below the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, hail and lightning.

At a glance

Population
64,984
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$60,377
Bottom 36% nationally
Density
156/sq mi
416.0 sq mi of land
Median age
42.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Harrison County
West Virginia
Metro area
Clarksburg, WV
Nearest major airport
PIT
84 mi · Pittsburgh Intl
Median home value
$166,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 70% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.1% over the past year, to 30,418 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,834$60,377Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,364$35,791Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.4%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.7 minBottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher27.2%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment30,418Bottom 40%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.9%Bottom 34%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.1%Top 29%June 2026
Labor force31,602Bottom 40%June 2026
Labor force participation56.2%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 46%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.43.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.7% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202460k54k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $60,377 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.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 41% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
25
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.3%
Reading proficiency
40.9%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Bridgeport High SchoolHarrison County Schools81716.0
Johnson Elementary SchoolHarrison County Schools74218.153%60%
Robert C Byrd High SchoolHarrison County Schools68913.5
Nutter Fort Primary SchoolHarrison County Schools59313.5
Bridgeport Middle SchoolHarrison County Schools59013.737%62%
Big Elm Elementary SchoolHarrison County Schools56713.534%29%
Washington Irving Middle SchoolHarrison County Schools53312.712%32%
Lincoln High SchoolHarrison County Schools52713.9
Simpson Elementary SchoolHarrison County Schools52217.441%41%
Nutter Fort Intermediate SchoolHarrison County Schools44511.420%31%
Lincoln Middle SchoolHarrison County Schools39411.322%42%
South Harrison High SchoolHarrison County Schools36514.0

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 $879 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 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
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$879
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$166,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.75Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.6%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4530,537Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$41$879Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,522$166,200Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.5%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.7%Bottom 48%2024 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
21/ 100
Ranks 1150 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

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.

Population has fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 64,472 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

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

At 1.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
104
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.6
Bottom 27% nationally
Year over year
−35%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202466k64k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202220232024202519484
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+50%).

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 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.8 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CLARKSBURG BENEDUM AP, 8.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation44.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

39 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hail and lightning.

Inland floodingHigh
HailModerate
LightningModerate
Winter weatherModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Harrison County records 2.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 18.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.2 per 100,000 residents in Harrison County.

Homicide
2.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
18.6
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
23.2
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
27.8
per 100,000 residents

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 Harrison 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 Harrison County rather than Harrison County 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
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. 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.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 84 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Pittsburgh IntlPIT84 mi11,500 ft
Arnold Palmer RgnlLBE86 mi8,222 ft
Akron-Canton RgnlCAK126 mi8,204 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
56
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
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
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

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.

Cities in Harrison County, WV