Fairmont is a somewhat small city located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 19,163 people and 12 constituent neighborhoods, Fairmont is the eighth largest community in West Virginia.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Fairmont is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Fairmont is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Fairmont who work in office and administrative support jobs (16.81%), sales jobs (13.41%), and teaching (7.65%).

In addition, Fairmont is a college town. There are a lot of students in Fairmont attending college, and as a result Fairmont provides a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared to the needs and activities of students.

One of the benefits of Fairmont is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 19.05 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.

Fairmont Information and Demographics

In terms of college education, Fairmont is somewhat better educated than the 14.96% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 20.04% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Fairmont in 2000 was $16,062, which is upper middle income relative to West Virginia, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $64,248 for a family of four.

The people who call Fairmont home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Fairmont is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Fairmont include Italian, German, Irish, and English.

The most common language spoken in Fairmont is English.