Beckley vs Shady Spring

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

Beckley and Shady Spring 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 3,455 in Shady Spring). Shady Spring has the higher median household income ($70,792 vs $39,939 in Beckley). Shady Spring has the higher median home value ($192,000 vs $148,800 in Beckley).

Population, income & housing

	Beckley	Shady Spring
Population	16,977	3,455
Median age	39.0 yrs	42.3 yrs
Median household income	$39,939	$70,792
Median home value	$148,800	$192,000
Median gross rent	$867	$923
Housing units	8,822	1,432
Homeownership rate	53.2%	90.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.9%	25.5%
Unemployment rate	2.7%	6.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Beckley	Shady Spring
Population	16,452 → 16,977 (+3.2%)	3,366 → 3,455 (+2.6%)
Median household income	$39,455 → $39,939 (+1.2%)	$56,316 → $70,792 (+25.7%)
Median home value	$110,000 → $148,800 (+35.3%)	$171,100 → $192,000 (+12.2%)
Median gross rent	$685 → $867 (+26.6%)	$749 → $923 (+23.2%)

Beckley

Population

16,45216,977

Median household income

$39,455$39,939

Median home value

$110,000$148,800

Median gross rent

$685$867

Shady Spring

Population

3,3663,455

Median household income

$56,316$70,792

Median home value

$171,100$192,000

Median gross rent

$749$923

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Beckley	Shady Spring
Under 5	6.8%	5.8%
5 to 17	16.9%	16.9%
18 to 24	9.1%	6.0%
25 to 34	12.7%	15.1%
35 to 44	11.7%	9.8%
45 to 54	8.8%	12.0%
55 to 64	12.2%	16.7%
65 to 74	14.6%	10.5%
75 and over	7.1%	7.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Beckley	Shady Spring
White (non-Hispanic)	71.4%	92.3%
Black or African American	15.0%	6.4%
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%	1.3%
Hispanic or Latino	2.8%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Beckley	Shady Spring
No high school diploma	10.3%	6.6%
High school graduate	31.6%	40.2%
Some college or associate's	32.3%	27.6%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	16.7%
Graduate or professional degree	10.2%	8.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Beckley	Shady Spring
Drove alone	82.0%	81.3%
Carpooled	8.6%	8.9%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	2.5%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	3.2%	8.2%
Other means	3.5%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Beckley	Shady Spring
1-unit, detached	75.5%	70.9%
1-unit, attached	3.2%	1.3%
2 to 4 units	4.8%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	6.9%	0.0%
20 or more units	9.3%	0.6%
Mobile home & other	0.3%	27.2%

Poverty & households

	Beckley	Shady Spring
Poverty rate	27.0%	16.5%
Average household size	2.25	2.81
Mean commute (minutes)	19	28
Median year structure built	1958	1998