Clay is a tiny town located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 375 people and just one neighborhood, Clay is the 217th largest community in West Virginia.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Clay is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Clay is a town of service providers, transportation and shipping workers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Clay who work in office and administrative support (21.05%), healthcare suport services (13.16%), and management occupations (10.53%).
The town is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Clay has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Clay a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
One of the benefits of Clay is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 18.09 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.
Clay is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The citizens of Clay have a very low rate of college education: just 8.02% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, compared to a national average of 21.84% for all cities.
The per capita income in Clay in 2022 was $7,319, which is low income relative to West Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $29,276 for a family of four. Clay also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 75.74% of its population below the federal poverty line.
The people who call Clay home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Clay residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Clay include Irish, German, Scots-Irish, Italian, and English.
The most common language spoken in Clay is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Spanish.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
The neighborhood has a greater proportion of government workers living in it than 99.5% of the neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. This is a unique feature of this neighborhood, and one that shapes its character.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 16.3% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.0% of all neighborhoods in America.
Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 35.3% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 96.8% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
In addition, the real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 96.0% of all neighborhoods in America, with 32.5% of the occupied housing here being classified as mobile homes. So if you are looking for a mobile home, or you like the look and feel of mobile home parks, this neighborhood might have the setting you desire.
Furthermore, uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 21 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 94.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more English and Eastern European ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 30.7% of this neighborhood's residents have English ancestry and 1.5% have Eastern European ancestry.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Clay are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 91.6% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 37.0% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 87.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 34.0% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 32.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions (23.0%), and 22.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.2% of households.
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Clay, WV, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (30.7%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (26.5%), and residents who report Irish roots (10.8%), and some of the residents are also of Scots-Irish ancestry (2.3%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (2.1%), among others.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (36.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans. However, there is also a significant group of residents (16.3%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (79.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (10.0%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.