7,689 people (2024 Census estimate, −4.0% since 2020)
342 square miles of land · 22 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
5 active community water systems list Clay County in the area they serve, reporting 5,295 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| CLAY-ROANE PSD (PROCIOUS DISTRICT) surface water · local government · WV3300806 | 2,199 served |
| CLAY WATER DEPT surface water · local government · WV3300801 | 1,232 served |
| CLAY CO PSD-HARTLAND buys surface water · local government · WV3300811 | 1,043 served |
| CLAY CO P S D - IVYDALE buys surface water · local government · WV3300809 | 729 served |
| CLAY CO P S D-TRIPLETT RIDGE buys surface water · local government · WV3300810 | 92 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 26 people were held in Clay County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2024), or 571 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2019 it was about 29.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
1 school district has its office in Clay County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $26.2 million — $25.3 million to run schools, about $15,509 per student, plus $730,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $2.7 million local (mostly property tax), $15.8 million state, $8.9 million federal.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Clay County about $4.7 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very Low; social vulnerability: Very High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
87 bridges in Clay County: 26 in good condition, 47 fair, and 14 poor (16.1%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| WV 16 over MIDDLE CREEK · built 1944 | 1,500 vehicles a day |
| WV 16 over CAMP CREEK · built 1930 | 1,500 vehicles a day |
| WV 16 over SYCAMORE CREEK · built 1940 | 1,400 vehicles a day |
| WV 36 over HANSFORD FK OF LAUREL CK · built 1932 | 1,400 vehicles a day |
| WV 4 over BIG OTTER CREEK · built 1929 | 350 vehicles a day |
| CR 14 over SUMMERS FORK · built 1978 | 300 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $1.4 million of work in Clay County in fiscal 2025, about $170 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for West Virginia are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Clay County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Clay County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of West Virginia: the state government and every county in West Virginia.
Nearby counties: Nicholas County (19 mi) · Roane County (24 mi) · Braxton County (25 mi) · Kanawha County (26 mi) · Calhoun County (27 mi) · Fayette County (30 mi).