Search Every West Virginia Phone Directory

How to Find Phone Numbers in West Virginia

Pick the layer of government that owns the thing you need. Driver licenses, unemployment claims, Medicaid, and birth certificates are state work. Deeds, marriage licenses, property tax bills, voter registration, and jury duty run through the 55 county courthouses. Garbage pickup, water bills, building permits, and parking belong to your city or town. Public schools answer to a county school system rather than the town. Get the layer right and you have done most of the work, because the office that owns the service almost always posts its own number, and that number stays fresher than any general listing.

When you have a person's name instead of an office, the state runs a public employee lookup. The WV.gov state phone directory searches state employee contact information and nothing else.

City workers, county workers, and school staff do not appear there. Those people sit in separate directories run by their own employer, which is why the same search can come back empty for a clerk you know exists. WV.gov also keeps an agency directory that lists state agencies alphabetically, and that is the faster route when you want a main line rather than a person.

1. Decide whether the office is state, county, city, school, or utility.
2. Open that office's own site and find its contact or directory page.
3. Search a state worker by name in the WV.gov state phone directory.
4. Call the main switchboard when no direct line is published.
5. File a written records request when the number is not posted anywhere.

West Virginia has no statewide 311 line. A few cities run their own service numbers, but there is nothing that covers every town. WV 211 fills part of that gap for community services, though it is a referral line and not a city dispatch desk.

Area Codes Serving West Virginia

Two area codes cover West Virginia, and both of them cover all of it. Area code 304 was handed out in 1947 as one of the first codes in the North American Numbering Plan, and for sixty years it was the only one the state had. Area code 681 joined it in 2009. It is not a second region. It is an overlay, which means new numbers get handed out on top of the same ground, so a 304 line and a 681 line can sit in neighboring offices on the same street.

That is why the code on a caller ID tells you very little here. A 681 number is not a warning sign, and it does not mean a call came from a different part of the state. Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, Martinsburg, Beckley, Wheeling, and every rural exchange share both codes. The West Virginia area codes page walks through the coverage and the overlay decision in more detail.

Ten-digit dialing has been mandatory statewide since February 2009. Publishing the area code with every number is the safe habit here.

Public Safety Phone Numbers in West Virginia

Dial 911 when somebody is in danger right now. Fires, wrecks with injuries, violence, a crime in progress, a gas leak, a medical emergency. Cold reports with no suspect, parking gripes, records questions, and billing problems do not belong on that line. Charleston asks residents to use 304-348-8111 for a non-emergency officer response through Metro 911, which keeps the emergency lines clear for people who need them.

Non-emergency lines are local. West Virginia State Police headquarters answers at 304-746-2100, and its contact page points to a detachment list when you need the troopers who actually cover your county. County sheriffs handle both law enforcement and tax collection in most counties, so Kanawha County uses one number, 304-357-0210, for both. Charleston takes some non-violent misdemeanor reports by phone at 304-348-6400 when there is no suspect information and nothing to collect, and its fire administration office is 304-348-8098.

Crisis and victim lines are separate again. West Virginia moved to 988 for suicide and mental health crisis calls in 2022, and the state announcement explains when to use it. Use 911 instead when there is a weapon, a fire, or an attempt that needs rescue. The national domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-7233, RAINN answers sexual assault calls at 1-800-656-4673, and the West Virginia Victim Assistance Program is 304-558-8814.

West Virginia State Government Phone Numbers

Charleston holds most of the state's phone traffic because most agencies sit in or near the Capitol complex. The Division of Motor Vehicles is the busiest of them. West Virginia residents call 1-800-642-9066, out-of-state customers call 304-558-3900, and the appointment page lists 304-558-3938 for people who cannot book online. Regional DMV offices keep their own counter hours but route scheduling back through those statewide numbers.

The Public Service Commission is where utility problems go once the company itself has stopped helping. Its main line is 304-340-0300 with a toll-free option at 800-344-5113, and consumer technicians take utility complaints at 1-800-642-8544 on weekdays from 8 to 5. Have your account number, the dates the problem happened, and a list of who you already spoke to at the utility. For fraud and bad business practices, the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division answers at 304-558-8986 with a hotline at 1-800-368-8808. Business filings and licensing run through the Secretary of State: 304-558-8000 for the Business and Licensing Call Center, 304-558-6000 for the main call center, and 877-372-8398 for the fraud hotline.

City and Town Phone Numbers in West Virginia

Municipal directories are uneven. Larger cities publish staff-level numbers, while plenty of small towns post one number and a set of office hours. Charleston is the deepest example the state has. City Hall sits at 501 Virginia Street East and answers at 304-348-8000, the mayor's office is 304-348-8174, and the city clerk is 304-348-8179. Its department directory lists each office with the work it handles, which saves a transfer or two.

Charleston also keeps a call list that goes well past the usual department roster.

The city call list is where the oddly specific numbers live. Graffiti removal is 304-348-6860. Grass and weeds over ten inches is 304-348-6458. Garbage collection is 304-348-6832, flood plain management is 304-348-8105, contractor licensing is 304-348-6833, and grave plots at Spring Hill are 304-348-8010. Public Works answers at 304-348-6850, and while the office is staffed weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the Street Department takes calls on that number at any hour.

Other cities are organized differently. Huntington runs an automated assistant on 304-696-5540 that routes callers to the mayor, building permits, planning and zoning, finance and tax payments, the parking board, police, and the clerk. Morgantown publishes a staff directory by department, with a general number at 304-284-7405, the City Manager's Office at 304-225-4213, and the City Clerk at 304-284-7439. South Charleston lists its police, library, public works, and sanitary board under 304-744-5300.

Note: When a town posts no direct line for the office you want, the city clerk is the desk that takes a written request for one.

County Office Numbers Across West Virginia

County government carries more everyday phone traffic in West Virginia than city government does. Property records, deeds, marriage licenses, probate, voter registration, jury duty, sheriff's tax payments, and circuit court filings all sit at the courthouse. With 55 counties, the fastest statewide index is the Secretary of State's county clerk directory, which gives an address, phone, fax, and email for every clerk. Barbour County answers at 304-457-2232, Berkeley County at 304-264-1989, and Boone County at 304-369-7330.

Kanawha County, which surrounds Charleston, publishes the most detailed county directory in the state. The commission's main number is 304-357-0101, with offices open weekdays from 8 to 5. From there the listings break down by function: the Assessor is 304-357-0250 with separate lines for real estate at 304-357-0256 and personal property at 304-357-0235, the Circuit Clerk is 304-357-0440 with jury and passport questions at 304-357-0441, and the County Clerk is 304-357-0130 with the record room at 304-357-0240, vital statistics at 304-357-0241, and voter registration at 304-357-0110. The Prosecuting Attorney is 304-357-0300.

Most counties are not that granular. When a county site lists only a switchboard, the clerk, the commission office, or the circuit clerk can usually route the call to the right desk. Investigatory numbers, witness contacts, juvenile records, and sealed court information stay out of public listings no matter which route you take.

West Virginia School and University Directories

Education is one of the better documented layers here, because four separate systems publish phone data. The Department of Education runs a public employee directory with names, positions, phones, emails, and office assignments, and its own main number is 1-833-627-2833. The statewide school lookup is separate from that and covers every public school building.

• WV Department of Education - 1-833-627-2833, staff searchable through the employee directory
• WV School Directory - every public K-12 school, searchable by school name or town at wveis.k12.wv.us
• West Virginia University - 304-293-0111, with public contacts on department and staff pages
• Marshall University - 304-696-3170, searchable through the electronic directory
• West Virginia State University - staff listed with name, title, phone, and office in the university directory

One catch is worth knowing before you start. WVU's full people directory asks for a WVU login, so the public cannot search students, faculty, and staff by name the way other campuses allow. Department pages, college sites, athletics staff lists, and WVU Medicine pages carry public numbers instead. Marshall goes the other way and keeps its directory open, but the search will not run unless you supply a last name or a phone number.

West Virginia Utility Phone Numbers

Utilities publish two kinds of numbers, and mixing them up costs time. An outage or a leak needs the emergency line, which is staffed at all hours. A bill question, a service transfer, or a payment arrangement needs customer service, which usually keeps office hours. West Virginia American Water is a good example of a company that answers both on one number.

The company's contact page spells out how that single line is staffed.

Emergencies go through 24 hours a day, while non-emergency service runs weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The same page lists TDD access on 711 and a Spanish assistance line at 1-877-909-2666, both of which are easy to miss.

Gas is the one case where you may need two calls. Mountaineer Gas asks people to reach its Operations and Dispatch Center at 1-800-834-2070 at any hour, and to call 911 as well when there is a real gas emergency. Appalachian Power lets customers report an outage, a tree problem, a streetlight problem, or power theft through its West Virginia contact page. If a utility stops responding, the Public Service Commission takes the complaint at 1-800-642-8544.

Note: Before calling the commission, pull your account number, the dates the trouble started, and a list of everyone you already spoke to at the company.

Health and Benefits Numbers in West Virginia

Benefits and public health run through the state, but the phone numbers are program by program. Client services for the Department of Human Services answer at 304-558-2400 or 800-642-8589, and applications for Medicaid, WVCHIP, and SNAP go through the WV PATH portal. The state SNAP line is 877-716-1212, and EBT card problems go to 1-866-545-6502 at any hour, which matters when a card fails on a weekend.

Public health keeps a separate set of toll-free lines. WIC is 1-800-445-5818 statewide, with the program office at 304-558-0030. Immunization questions are 1-800-642-3634 in state and 304-558-2188 from outside it. AIDS and STD prevention is 1-800-642-8244, and the Women's Health Center line is 1-800-642-8670. Vaccine record support through MyIR runs 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 304-356-4047. For certificates, the state Vital Registration office handles birth, death, marriage, and divorce copies, and 304-558-2931 is the number to confirm current fees before you mail anything.

Hospitals run their own switchboards on top of all that. WVU Medicine books Morgantown-area appointments at 855-988-2273 and helps with MyWVUChart problems at 866-982-4278. Local health departments publish program lines too. Monongalia County answers at 304-598-5100, with dentistry at 304-598-5108, environmental health at 304-598-5131, clinical services at 304-598-5119, and WIC at 304-598-5181.

Looking Up an Unknown West Virginia Number

Start with the office the caller claims to be. If a call says it came from a state agency, a school, a hospital, or the sheriff, the published directory for that body settles it faster than anything else. Only after that do the general-purpose tools help, and each one answers a narrower question than people expect. The West Virginia phone numbers page covers the full walkthrough, including the third-party services.

Two limits apply to all of them. Numbers move between carriers, so an old prefix no longer proves who owns a line. Caller ID can also be faked outright, which means a call showing a familiar West Virginia exchange may have come from anywhere on earth. Hanging up and dialing the published number yourself gets around both problems.

Scam Calls and Where to Report Them

The scripts that hit West Virginia phones repeat themselves. Callers claim a power or water shutoff is minutes away. They pretend to be the IRS, Social Security, the DMV, a sheriff's deputy, or a court clerk with a warrant over missed jury duty. They pose as a grandchild in trouble, a romance that needs a crypto transfer, a prize that needs a fee, a debt collector, or a Medicare representative. Many of them show a 304 or 681 number with a familiar exchange, because a local-looking caller ID gets answered more often.

• Utility shutoff threats using the name of Appalachian Power, WV American Water, or Mountaineer Gas
• Government impostors claiming to be the IRS, Social Security, DMV, or a county sheriff
• Jury duty warrant calls demanding payment to avoid arrest
• Grandparent and family emergency calls asking for a wire or gift cards
• Prize, sweepstakes, and fake debt collection calls

Reports go to different places depending on the problem. The Attorney General's Consumer Protection Hotline is 1-800-368-8808, and its March 2026 scam report tells residents they can ask for the Scam Coordinator on that line. Unwanted sales calls go to the Do Not Call Registry. Robocalls, spoofing, and blocked or mislabeled calls go to the FCC Consumer Complaint Center. Utility billing disputes belong with the Public Service Commission instead.

Note: The Attorney General's office keeps a Scam Coordinator on the consumer hotline, so ask for that person when money already changed hands.

Community Directories and 211 in West Virginia

WV 211 is the number to keep handy when you know what you need but not who provides it. It runs 24 hours a day across all 55 counties and covers food, housing, utility assistance, behavioral health, child care, elder services, disability resources, and disaster help. You can dial 2-1-1, text a ZIP code to 898-211, chat online, or search the database yourself.

The WV 211 site collects all of those entry points in one place.

Some phones cannot reach a three-digit code at all, which is common on VoIP lines and Wi-Fi calling. For those, WV 211 publishes a toll-free backup at 833-848-9905. It is worth saving, because it is the part people discover only after the short code fails.

Legal help has its own set of lines. Legal Aid of West Virginia takes phone applications at 866-255-4370, with intake Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Tuesday mornings until 12:30. The State Bar answers at 304-553-7220 or 866-989-8227, though staff there cannot give legal advice. The Lawyer Referral Service arranges a 30-minute consultation for $25 or less, and Tuesday Legal Connect puts volunteer lawyers on 1-800-642-3617 on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8. Chambers of commerce fill in the business side, including the Charleston Area Alliance, the Huntington Regional Chamber, and the Morgantown Area Partnership.

How to Read a West Virginia Phone Number

Every number here follows the same shape: a three-digit area code, a three-digit exchange, and a four-digit line number, sitting inside the +1 country code that covers the United States and Canada. Because 681 sits on top of 304, the area code has to be dialed even on a call across the street. The West Virginia phone codes page handles the rest of the dialing rules, including the short service codes and the star codes.

NPA

Telephone shorthand for the area code, the first three digits you dial.

NXX

The three digits after the area code. Phone people call it the exchange or the central office code.

Overlay

A newer area code laid over ground an older one already covers. Nobody changes numbers, but everybody dials ten digits.

Rate center

The billing territory a batch of exchange codes was originally tied to.

The exchange carries more local meaning here than the area code does. Numbers starting 304-558 usually belong to state government offices in Charleston. 304-348 reads as Charleston city government, 304-357 as Kanawha County, 304-293 as WVU in Morgantown, 304-696 as Marshall and Huntington, and 304-746 as South Charleston and State Police headquarters. Newer 681 exchanges were assigned to the same rate centers, so 681-205 and 681-273 are Charleston, 681-204 and 681-286 are Huntington, and 681-209 and 681-212 are Morgantown.

Treat all of that as a hint rather than proof. Number portability lets a line keep its exchange when it moves to a new carrier or a VoIP service, and a spoofed call can display a state-government exchange without ever touching one.

Phone Service History in West Virginia

West Virginia spent longer as a one-area-code state than almost anywhere else. When the original numbering plan was drawn in 1947, 304 covered the whole state, and the small dispersed population kept it that way for six decades. The middle zero in 304 was part of the old logic, since codes built that way were handed to entire states rather than single metros. Landline service came up through Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone, later Verizon-related systems, then Frontier West Virginia, alongside independent and cooperative carriers in the rural counties. Plenty of residents still use "304" as shorthand for the state itself.

The math ran out in the 2000s. Cell phones, fax lines, alarm systems, business lines, and VoIP services ate through the available 304 exchanges, and relief planning turned serious in 2007. In early 2008 the Public Service Commission looked at splitting the state geographically, which would have forced half of West Virginia onto a new code. Businesses and residents pushed back hard, since a split means reprinting signs, business cards, and reprogramming alarm and medical systems. The commission approved a statewide overlay instead. Permissive ten-digit dialing opened on July 26, 2008, the grace period closed on February 27, 2009, mandatory ten-digit dialing started the next day, and 681 numbers went out beginning in March 2009. Nobody had to give up a number, and everybody had to add three digits.

Note: No relief plan for a third West Virginia code is on file, so 304 and 681 are expected to carry the state for years yet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to dial ten digits inside West Virginia?

Yes. Mandatory ten-digit local dialing started on February 28, 2009, right before the first 681 numbers were released. Seven-digit local calls stopped connecting then and have not come back. That applies whether you are calling the house next door or an office at the other end of the state. Older signs, business cards, and school handouts sometimes still show seven digits, so add 304 or 681 in front of anything that looks short.

Is a 681 number long distance?

No. 681 is a normal West Virginia code that covers exactly the same ground as 304. Whether a call is toll or free depends on your carrier and your calling plan, not on which of the two codes appears in the number. A 681 line can be a mobile phone in Beckley, a clinic in Martinsburg, a business in Wheeling, or a VoIP line at a home office. Treating it as suspicious on its own leads people to ignore legitimate calls.

How do I find a state employee's direct number?

Use the WV.gov state phone directory, which searches state employee contact information. If the person works for a county, a city, or a school system, that search will not find them, because those employers keep separate directories. Department of Education staff appear in the WVDE employee directory instead. When nothing turns up, call the agency's main line and ask to be transferred, or send a written records request for a number that is not published.

Who do I call for non-emergency police?

It depends on where you are. Charleston routes non-emergency officer requests through Metro 911 at 304-348-8111 and takes some minor reports by phone at 304-348-6400. Outside city limits, the county sheriff is usually the right call, such as 304-357-0210 in Kanawha County. West Virginia State Police headquarters answers at 304-746-2100 and can point you to the detachment covering your area. Keep 911 for anything happening right now.

What is the difference between 211 and 911?

211 connects you to community services. Food, rent and utility help, behavioral health, child care, elder and disability services, and disaster support. It does not send anyone out. 911 dispatches police, fire, and ambulance crews to an address. WV 211 answers day and night and also works by text to 898-211, but a call that needs an officer or a medic belongs on 911 every time.

How do I cut down on robocalls?

Register your number on the national Do Not Call Registry and report the calls that keep coming. That stops law-abiding telemarketers, though the FTC is clear that it does nothing to scammers who already ignore the rules. Carrier tools such as AT&T ActiveArmor, Verizon Call Filter, and T-Mobile Scam Shield add spam labels and blocking, and phone settings can silence unknown callers. Labels are not perfect, so a legitimate agency call occasionally gets flagged.