Ghent vs Lester

A side-by-side comparison of Ghent and Lester: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lester has the higher population (492 vs 363 in Ghent). Ghent has the higher median household income ($143,208 vs $30,000 in Lester). Ghent has the higher median home value ($410,200 vs $81,500 in Lester).

Population, income & housing

	Ghent	Lester
Population	363	492
Median age	48.5 yrs	50.4 yrs
Median household income	$143,208	$30,000
Median home value	$410,200	$81,500
Median gross rent	—	$834
Housing units	327	201
Homeownership rate	100.0%	75.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	35.0%	12.0%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	4.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Ghent	Lester
Population	536 → 363 (-32.3%)	454 → 492 (+8.4%)
Median household income	$94,769 → $143,208 (+51.1%)	$31,172 → $30,000 (-3.8%)
Median home value	$413,400 → $410,200 (-0.8%)	$73,400 → $81,500 (+11.0%)
Median gross rent	—	$861 → $834 (-3.1%)

Ghent

Population

536363

Median household income

$94,769$143,208

Median home value

$413,400$410,200

Lester

Population

454492

Median household income

$31,172$30,000

Median home value

$73,400$81,500

Median gross rent

$861$834

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Ghent	Lester
Under 5	0.0%	4.7%
5 to 17	0.0%	26.0%
18 to 24	0.0%	8.1%
25 to 34	19.0%	4.9%
35 to 44	0.0%	2.4%
45 to 54	47.1%	7.5%
55 to 64	10.7%	24.8%
65 to 74	0.0%	13.2%
75 and over	23.1%	8.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Ghent	Lester
White (non-Hispanic)	100.0%	80.1%
Black or African American	0.0%	7.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.0%	12.2%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	0.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Ghent	Lester
No high school diploma	5.5%	22.3%
High school graduate	36.1%	54.5%
Some college or associate's	23.4%	11.3%
Bachelor's degree	19.0%	7.3%
Graduate or professional degree	16.0%	4.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Ghent	Lester
Drove alone	58.8%	85.0%
Carpooled	41.2%	8.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	7.1%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Ghent	Lester
1-unit, detached	100.0%	63.2%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	36.8%

Poverty & households

	Ghent	Lester
Poverty rate	0.0%	50.8%
Average household size	1.53	2.76
Mean commute (minutes)	62	48
Median year structure built	1970	1981