QoL Rank
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West Virginia

West Virginia has a quality of life score of 41/100 (D, below average) and ranks #36 of 51 states. Its strongest category is cost of living (69) and its weakest is quality of life (13). Its top-rated larger counties are Monongalia County, Hancock County, Putnam County.

  • Safety: 45
  • Cost of living: 69
  • Education: 36
  • Quality of life: 13

Key figures: violent crime 247.4 per 100,000 people a year (US 345.2); median rent $872 a month; median home value $162,600; median household income $55,875; life expectancy 72.1 years.

Counties in West Virginia, best first

  1. Monongalia County 61
  2. Hancock County 56
  3. Putnam County 56
  4. Jefferson County 54
  5. Marion County 52
  6. Brooke County 50
  7. Berkeley County 49
  8. Harrison County 49
  9. Mineral County 49
  10. Wood County 48
  11. Monroe County 47
  12. Taylor County 47
  13. Ohio County 45
  14. Morgan County 45
  15. Marshall County 44
  16. Jackson County 44
  17. Mason County 43
  18. Randolph County 43
  19. Grant County 42
  20. Upshur County 42
  21. Tyler County 42
  22. Wetzel County 42
  23. Doddridge County 42
  24. Hampshire County 41
  25. Nicholas County 41
  26. Kanawha County 40
  27. Preston County 40
  28. Logan County 40
  29. Greenbrier County 40
  30. Fayette County 39
  31. Wayne County 39
  32. Pleasants County 39
  33. Gilmer County 38
  34. Mercer County 38
  35. Hardy County 37
  36. Boone County 37
  37. Tucker County 36
  38. Pendleton County 36
  39. Cabell County 35
  40. Wyoming County 35
  41. Lewis County 35
  42. Braxton County 35
  43. Ritchie County 34
  44. Barbour County 34
  45. Roane County 33
  46. Calhoun County 32
  47. Summers County 32
  48. Lincoln County 31
  49. Pocahontas County 31
  50. Raleigh County 31
  51. Webster County 29
  52. Mingo County 27
  53. Wirt County 26
  54. Clay County 23
  55. McDowell County 22

Your priorities

Choose how much each category counts toward the overall score. The map, rankings and every place’s overall score update as you go.

About the data

Every county is compared with every other US county, and every state with the other states.

Each measure becomes a percentile from 0 to 100, where 100 is always best. For crime, deaths, disaster risk, costs and commutes, the lowest value is best. A category score averages its measures’ percentiles and is then scaled so all four categories have the same spread around 50, so each counts equally. The overall score is the average of the four. 50 is a typical place, and most land between 35 and 65. Your priorities lets you weight the categories differently.

Grades: A 65 and up, B 55–64, C 45–54, D 35–44, F under 35.

Each category lists a county’s own figures next to its state’s and the US figures. Under the state and US columns, Difference shows whether the county is higher or lower, as a share of that figure (hover for the exact gap). Rank shows where it ranks instead: “ranked 75%” means it does better than 75% of the counties in its state, or in the US. A green arrow or dot means the county does better, red means worse.

Compare puts any two places side by side, counties or states, in any state. The better value in each row is highlighted.

A county gets an overall score only if all four categories have data and at least 60% of the measures are present. Small counties often have suppressed data, and without this rule they rank at the top on just a few numbers. Top 10 lists only include counties with at least 10,000 people.

What’s measured

Limitations

Sources