West Virginia is known for its coal and often overlooked for its agricultural production. One thing that most don’t over look West Virginia for is that it is rural and possibly getting more rural as the years go on.
The state currently has no town with over 50,000 residents. And if trends hold true, they’re not only going to stay that way, but get even farther away from it as only six of the 20 largest towns in the state have showed any growth in the last decade.
To be fair, the state’s largest city Charleston, also the capital, and the three county area it is the center of includes about 257,000 people. So it’s not exactly dirt roads and one stop light towns, but the area is shrinking as a whole as well.
The state’s nickname is “The Mountain State” and it has that name for a reason. You’re not going to see a lot of corn or wheat coming out of here. They are the 10th largest producer of apples, but their #1 agricultural product is in livestock. Broiler chickens and beef account for 51% of the agriculture income for the state.
About 95% of the farms in the state are still family owned.