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The hillbilly stereotype is frequently used to shame mountain people, but there are gentler versions, like Snuffy Smith, the long-running comic strip character. Snuffy Smith originally started out as a supporting character in his comic strip, which first launched in 1919 when Billy DeBeck created Barney Google. Artist Fred Lasswell was brought in during the ‘30s to create Snuffy Smith and his friends. And now the strip is written and drawn by John Rose, who lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
The Italian Heritage Festival in Monongalia County is an example of one of the reasons that county is growing, while much of the southern portion of the state is losing population. West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival
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The U.S. Census Bureau recently released adjusted data on the population from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. West Virginia didn’t fare well overall.
The Population Estimates Program uses current data on births, deaths and migration to calculate population change since the 2020 Census and produce annual estimates.
The only counties and metro areas in West Virginia to gain population in that period were from Monongalia County to the Eastern Panhandle. The Hagerstown metro area gained more than 4,000 residents, and the Winchester, Virginia metro area gained more than 2,000.
By contrast, central West Virginia from Beckley to Charleston and Huntington to Parkersburg lost more than 3,500 residents.
The census bureau places the state population today at between 1.76 to 1.77 million. The 2020 census had the state’s population at almost 1.8 million people.
Using the more optimistic number, the state’s population has declined by more than 24,000 people in five years. The U.S. population grew by roughly 10 million residents in that same period.
Nationwide, population growth continued to slow as net international migration slowed or reversed in the second half of 2025. Major metropolitan areas and border states have seen the greatest decline.
The total U.S. population is at 342,400,000. That is roughly 10 million residents higher than the 2020 census.
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Fluorspar is a little-known mineral used to make everything from steel, aluminum and gasoline to uranium fuel and batteries. For the Appalachia Mid-South Newsroom, WKMS’ Lily Burris reports the largest known deposit of the critical mineral in the U.S. is in western Kentucky – and its applications in artificial intelligence (AI) could reawaken the region’s mining industry.
Two different groups, one representing West Virginia Republicans, the other from the Democratic Caucus of the West Virginia House of Delegates, are both calling on Gov. Patrick Morrisey to address skyrocketing gas prices.
BridgeValley Community and Technical College is expanding workforce development programs in highway construction and welding thanks to federal and state grants.
Two coal miners died in separate underground accidents last Thursday evening and Friday morning. The West Virginia Office of Miner’s Health Safety and Training has released its initial findings.
