Beckley vs Prosperity

A side-by-side comparison of Beckley and Prosperity: population, income, housing, and more.

Beckley and Prosperity are places in West Virginia. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Beckley has the higher population (16,977 vs 1,575 in Prosperity). Prosperity has the higher median household income ($82,637 vs $39,939 in Beckley). Beckley has the higher median home value ($148,800 vs $115,700 in Prosperity).

Population, income & housing

	Beckley	Prosperity
Population	16,977	1,575
Median age	39.0 yrs	37.6 yrs
Median household income	$39,939	$82,637
Median home value	$148,800	$115,700
Median gross rent	$867	—
Housing units	8,822	512
Homeownership rate	53.2%	86.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.9%	30.3%
Unemployment rate	2.7%	11.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Beckley	Prosperity
Population	16,452 → 16,977 (+3.2%)	1,815 → 1,575 (-13.2%)
Median household income	$39,455 → $39,939 (+1.2%)	$52,382 → $82,637 (+57.8%)
Median home value	$110,000 → $148,800 (+35.3%)	$115,700 → $115,700 (+0.0%)
Median gross rent	$685 → $867 (+26.6%)	$878 → $1,087 (+23.8%)

Beckley

Population

16,45216,977

Median household income

$39,455$39,939

Median home value

$110,000$148,800

Median gross rent

$685$867

Prosperity

Population

1,8151,575

Median household income

$52,382$82,637

Median home value

$115,700$115,700

Median gross rent

$878$1,087

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Beckley	Prosperity
Under 5	6.8%	1.1%
5 to 17	16.9%	21.4%
18 to 24	9.1%	5.2%
25 to 34	12.7%	4.6%
35 to 44	11.7%	22.9%
45 to 54	8.8%	5.7%
55 to 64	12.2%	22.7%
65 to 74	14.6%	12.8%
75 and over	7.1%	3.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Beckley	Prosperity
White (non-Hispanic)	71.4%	71.4%
Black or African American	15.0%	15.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	2.9%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.0%
Two or more races	7.8%	9.7%
Hispanic or Latino	2.8%	3.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Beckley	Prosperity
No high school diploma	10.3%	2.6%
High school graduate	31.6%	57.7%
Some college or associate's	32.3%	9.4%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	17.8%
Graduate or professional degree	10.2%	12.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Beckley	Prosperity
Drove alone	82.0%	90.5%
Carpooled	8.6%	4.9%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	2.5%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	3.2%	4.5%
Other means	3.5%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Beckley	Prosperity
1-unit, detached	75.5%	98.0%
1-unit, attached	3.2%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	4.8%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	6.9%	0.0%
20 or more units	9.3%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.3%	2.0%

Poverty & households

	Beckley	Prosperity
Poverty rate	27.0%	11.2%
Average household size	2.25	3.12
Mean commute (minutes)	19	18
Median year structure built	1958	1961