Rock is a very small town located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 4,355 people and just one neighborhood, Rock is the 39th largest community in West Virginia.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Rock is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 36.41% of the Rock workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Rock is a town of service providers, construction workers and builders, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Rock who work in teaching (14.84%), food service (12.52%), and office and administrative support (7.83%).
A relatively large number of people in Rock telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 7.43% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Rock has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Rock has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Rock than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Rock may be for you.
Being a small town, Rock does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
In terms of college education, Rock ranks among the least educated cities in the nation, as only 5.93% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Rock in 2022 was $20,886, which is lower middle income relative to West Virginia, and low income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $83,544 for a family of four. However, Rock contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Rock home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Rock residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Rock include German, Irish, English, Italian, and European.
The most common language spoken in Rock is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
The neighborhood is unique for having just 5.9% of adults here having earned a bachelor's degree. This is a lower rate of college graduates than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.3% of America's neighborhoods.
It used to be that most Americans lived on the farm, or otherwise made their living from the land, the forests, or the sea. With global trade and an economy increasingly based on providing services to one another, fewer people farm, fish or harvest timber now than at any time in American history. But according to NeighborhoodScout's leading analysis, the neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 3.9% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 95.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 95.6% of all neighborhoods in America, with 31.6% of the occupied housing here being classified as mobile homes. So if you are looking for a mobile home, or you like the look and feel of mobile home parks, this neighborhood might have the setting you desire.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Rock are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 93.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 15.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 60.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the neighborhood, 32.5% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 27.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (24.9%), and 11.7% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 100.0% of households. Some people also speak Italian (4.3%).
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Rock, WV, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (18.6%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (14.4%), and residents who report English roots (9.5%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (2.0%), along with some Mexican ancestry residents (1.4%), among others.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (57.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (86.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (6.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.