West Virginia students going back to school causes annual business boom across the state

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — Businesses across the state are experiencing one of the two largest sales booms of the year this month.

In Morgantown, where nearly half the city’s population is made up of students for most of the year, students’ annual August return to campus marks more than the start of classes — it’s an economic turning point.

“There’s no doubt that the students are an absolute key driver to the Morgantown economy,” said John Deskins, director of West Virginia University’s John Chambers College of Business and Economic Research. “You don’t even have to look at the data to see it. All you have to do is walk through Morgantown in the summer, and it’s plain as day to see that it’s just smaller, quieter, less activity going on.”

West Virginia University’s roughly 25,000 stu