Morgantown is a medium-sized city located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 27,161 people and 15 constituent neighborhoods, Morgantown is the fifth largest community in West Virginia.

Morgantown is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 89.17% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Morgantown is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Morgantown who work in office and administrative support jobs (15.09%), teaching (14.22%), and sales jobs (11.27%).

In addition, Morgantown is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on local Morgantown culture, lifestyle and entertainment options. Morgantown really pulses to the beat of the academic calendar. In Morgantown every fall, returning students reinvigorate the community, who you will notice are all over town, buying groceries, out with friends, and getting acquainted or re-acquainted with each other and Morgantown. One of the beneficial effects that colleges provide is that they tend to be lasting institutions that deliver direct economic benefits to the local economy in the form of such things as jobs for faculty and staff, and spending by students. Morgantown benefits directly from this.

One of the benefits of Morgantown is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 15.85 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.

For the size of the city, public transportation in Morgantown is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the bus. For Morgantown, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.

Morgantown Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Morgantown is a pretty powerful place. 47.80% of the adults in Morgantown have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 14.96% for all cities and towns.

The per capita income in Morgantown in 2000 was $14,459, which is middle income relative to West Virginia, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $57,836 for a family of four.

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

The most common language spoken in Morgantown is English. Some people also speak Spanish.