Ordered by what stands out in Beckley. Another town gets a different order.
Work & commute
About one in three working residents works right in Beckley
40% of Beckley’s working residents work right in town. The top destinations are Charleston (4%), Prosperity (2%) and Oak Hill (1%). Half commute less than 3 miles.
Beckley’s public schools outperform 34% of West Virginia districts
The public schools Beckley’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 66% of West Virginia’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they sit near the middle.
NCES · EDFacts · graded within WV on state tests and graduationAll 9 schools →
Climate
Snowy winters, pleasant summers
Beckley has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. A typical July afternoon reaches 81°, a January night drops to 23°, and about 56 inches of snow falls in a normal winter.
Beckley is a city in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. The population was 17,286 at the 2020 census, making it the ninth-most populous city in the state. It is the principal city of the Beckley metropolitan area of Southern West Virginia, home to 115,079 residents in 2020. Beckley was founded on April 4, 1838, and was long known for its ties to the coal mining industry. It is the home of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology, as well as an annex of Concord University and the University of Charleston.
