Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 51,400, while its metropolitan area had 304,214. New definitions from February 28, 2013 placed the population at 240,000. The metropolitan area is the second-largest in the State of West Virginia behind the Huntington-Ashland-Ironton metropolitan area.
