The Charleston Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, is an area consisting of three counties in

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, anchored by the city of Charleston. It is the largest metropolitan area entirely within the state of West Virginia. The Huntington Metro Area adds to the Charleston–Huntington, WV-OH-KY CSA and spans three states (West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio), while the core county of the Charleston area, Kanawha County, is more populous than the West Virginia portion of the Huntington area. Charleston is its largest and most populous city in the MSA. Cross Lanes is its most populous

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 309,635 (though new standards set on February 28, 2013 placed the population at 240,000). Prior to the 2000 Census, the Charleston MSA consisted of only two counties – Kanawha and Putnam (the latter of which is now considered part of the Huntington metropolitan area).

Rankings

The population of the Charleston MSA is ranked 151st out of the 363 MSA's. *The Charleston–Huntington, WV-OH-KY CSA is the 81st largest in the US. *The Charleston-Huntington TV Market is ranked 64th out of 210. *The Charleston MSA is ranked 181st out of the 297

Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...

radio markets. *Out of 280 Metropolitan statistical areas ranked by per capita income, the Charleston MSA is ranked 106th. (Census 2000) *The MSA is 202 out of 280 ranked by median household income. (Census 2000)

Counties

In order of population:

Cities, towns, and other communities

Places with more than 45,000 inhabitants

* Charleston (Principal City)

Places with 5,000 to 15,000 inhabitants

* Cross Lanes (

) *

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...

Nitro Nitro may refer to: Chemistry *Nitrogen, a chemical element and a gas except at very low temperatures, with which many compounds are formed: **Nitro compound, an organic compound containing one or more nitro functional groups, -NO2 **Nitro ligand ...

(partial) * South Charleston * St. Albans

Places with 1,000 to 5,000 inhabitants

* Alum Creek (census-designated place) * Belle * Chesapeake * Clendenin * Coal Fork (census-designated place) * Culloden (census-designated place; partial) * Elkview (census-designated place) * Madison * Marmet * Montgomery (partial) * Pinch (census-designated place) * Sissonville (census-designated place) * Upper Falls (census-designated place)

Places with less than 1,000 inhabitants

* Cedar Grove *

Clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

* Danville * East Bank *

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

* Handley * Jefferson * Pratt * Smithers (partial) *

Sylvester Sylvester or Silvester is a name derived from the Latin adjective ''silvestris'' meaning "wooded" or "wild", which derives from the noun ''silva'' meaning "woodland". Classical Latin spells this with ''i''. In Classical Latin, ''y'' represented a ...

* Whitesville

Unincorporated places

* Adonijah * Ashford * Bandytown * Barrett * Big Chimney *

Bim Building information modeling (BIM) is an approach involving the generation and management of digital representations of the physical and functional characteristics of buildings or other physical assets and facilities. BIM is supported by vario ...

* Bob White * Bream * Crede * Dille * Elk Forest * Emmons * Floe * Foch * Hillsdale *

Independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

Institute An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

* Julian *

Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...

* Mink Shoals * Nellis * O'Brion * Porter * Racine * Rand * Swandale * Uneeda * Valley Fork * Van * Washington Heights * Wharton * Whetstone * Widen

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 309,635 people, 129,229 households, and 88,175 families residing within the MSA. New definitions from February 28, 2013 placed the population at 363,000. The racial makeup of the MSA was 93.25%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 4.66%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.21% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.17% from other races, and 1.04% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 0.55% of the population. The median income for a household in the MSA was $29,222, and the median income for a family was $35,735. Males had a median income of $34,105 versus $20,448 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the MSA was $16,074.

Highways

Interstates

* Interstate 77 * Interstate 79 * Interstate 64

U.S. Highways

* U.S. Route 60 * U.S. Route 119 * U.S. Route 35

Appalachian Corridors

* Corridor G

WV state highways

Colleges and universities

* University of Charleston * West Virginia State University * Marshall University Graduate College * BridgeValley Community and Technical College * WV Junior College

Combined Statistical Area

The Charleston–Huntington–Ashland, WV–OH–KY Combined Statistical Area consists of the Charleston, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, the Huntington–Ashland, WV–KY–OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the Portsmouth, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. It spans 12 counties in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio.

References

External links

The Charleston Area AllianceList of Micropolitan and Metropolitan areas defined by the U.S. Census Bureau
{{authority control Geography of Charleston, West Virginia Regions of West Virginia Boone County, West Virginia Clay County, West Virginia Kanawha County, West Virginia Lincoln County, West Virginia Putnam County, West Virginia Metropolitan areas of West Virginia