Wood County, WV

County Profile

83,407 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Wood 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.

49out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 8% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1135th of 1,255 counties31
Growth1117th of 1,226 counties25
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
ClimateTop 45% of 1,254 counties70
Physical resilience976th of 1,255 counties36
Access1162nd of 1,255 counties46
Economic stability926th of 1,255 counties46
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.3% and the Opportunity signal places Wood County in the bottom 10%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 99 units authorized over the past twelve months, 23% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
83,407
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$57,810
Bottom 29% nationally
Density
228/sq mi
366.5 sq mi of land
Median age
43.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wood County
West Virginia
Metro area
Parkersburg-Vienna, WV
Nearest major airport
LCK
86 mi · Rickenbacker Intl
Median home value
$158,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 46% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 2.8% over the past year, to 34,393 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,706$57,810Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,013$34,707Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.7%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.4 minBottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.1%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment34,393Bottom 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-5.8%Bottom 4%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.8%Bottom 10%June 2026
Labor force35,925Bottom 44%June 2026
Labor force participation56.2%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 48%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Top 46%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.73.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.3% 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
202120222023202458k50k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $57,810 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 — Parkersburg-Vienna, WV
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons1,580$28,220
Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,270$26,920
Cooks, Fast Food1,120$22,780
Cashiers950$26,510
Registered Nurses910$79,000
Stockers and Order Fillers830$33,410

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.

42% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 52% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
27
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
42.3%
Reading proficiency
51.7%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Parkersburg High SchoolWood County Schools1,49117.1
Parkersburg South High SchoolWood County Schools1,37316.3
Williamstown High SchoolWood County Schools67614.737%67%
Edison Middle SchoolWood County Schools55114.537%52%
Williamstown Elementary SchoolWood County Schools54516.559%62%
Blennerhassett Middle SchoolWood County Schools53417.842%52%
Blennerhassett Elementary SchoolWood County Schools52215.455%57%
Jefferson Elementary CenterWood County Schools4758.523%40%
Mineral Wells Elementary SchoolWood County Schools46515.538%36%
Hamilton Middle SchoolWood County Schools44614.437%52%
Jackson Middle SchoolWood County Schools42913.832%57%
Lubeck Elementary SchoolWood County Schools38114.744%48%

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 $822 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
17.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$822
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$158,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.74Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.1%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±7540,283Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$25$822Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,640$158,500Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.1%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.0%Bottom 35%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
25/ 100
Ranks 1117 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 82,757 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward 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 1.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
99
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.2
Bottom 19% nationally
Year over year
−23%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202484k83k
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
202220232024202512455
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+58%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.2 inches, including 11.3 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PARKERSBURG, 5.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation44.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall11.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

36 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Inland floodingHigh
LightningModerate

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

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.

Wood County records 3.2 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 16.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 32.5 per 100,000 residents in Wood County.

Homicide
3.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.9
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
32.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
19.3
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 Wood 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 Wood County rather than Wood 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 86 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rickenbacker IntlLCK86 mi11,902 ft
John Glenn Columbus IntlCMH91 mi10,114 ft
Pittsburgh IntlPIT112 mi11,500 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.

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Area Score
49
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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
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.