Clay is a tiny town located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 380 people and just one neighborhood, Clay is the 217th largest community in West Virginia.
Clay is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 88.46% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Clay is a town of service providers, managers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Clay who work in healthcare suport services (21.15%), office and administrative support (13.46%), and healthcare (13.46%).
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Clay spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 11.97 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.
As is often the case in a small town, Clay doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
In Clay, just 7.59% of people over 25 hold a college degree, which is very low compared to the rest of the nation, whereas the average among all cities is 21.84%.
The per capita income in Clay in 2022 was $8,665, which is low income relative to West Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $34,660 for a family of four. Clay also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 71.97% 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, English, German, Scots-Irish, and Italian.
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.
Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. 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. 17.6% 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 99.2% of all neighborhoods in America.
Despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 40.2%, which is higher than 97.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, the real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 95.2% of all neighborhoods in America, with 30.4% 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, this neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 21 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 94.4% of America.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Croatian and Eastern European ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Croatian ancestry and 2.0% have Eastern European ancestry.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a 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 90.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 49.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 94.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the neighborhood, 45.3% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 30.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (14.9%), and 12.1% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.5% of households.
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Clay, WV, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (16.7%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (15.4%), and residents who report Irish roots (8.9%), and some of the residents are also of French ancestry (5.1%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (3.1%), 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 (42.2% 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 (17.6%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (85.4%) 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 (14.2%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.