Charleston is a medium-sized city located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 47,129 people and 29 associated neighborhoods, Charleston is the largest community in West Virginia.Charleston is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 88.40% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Charleston is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Charleston who work in office and administrative support (11.29%), healthcare (11.25%), and sales jobs (10.68%). Also of interest is that Charleston has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.19% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Charleston spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 18.70 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.Charleston is one of the most well-educated cities in the nation. 43.21% of adults in Charleston have at least a bachelor's degree. Compare that to the average community in America, which has just 21.84% with a bachelor's degree or higher. The per capita income in Charleston in 2022 was $44,639, which is wealthy relative to West Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $178,556 for a family of four. However, Charleston contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Charleston is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Charleston home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Charleston residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Charleston include English, German, Irish, Italian, and Scots-Irish. The most common language spoken in Charleston is English. Other important languages spoken here include Arabic and Spanish.
