City safety & data profile
CharlestonSC
Charleston, SC is a 133K-resident city in Charleston County with a median household income of $92,414.
Charleston County, South Carolina. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Charleston, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Charleston has a population larger than 95% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $509,700, and 6 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
- 133K
- Population (place)
- Top 5%
- By size
- $92,414
- Median income (place)
- $509,700
- Median home (place)
- 12.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Charleston
Charleston posts a median household income higher than 63% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 6 hospitals serve the Charleston area.
- Top 37%
- by median income, US cities
- 6
- hospitals in & near Charleston
Composite score · Charleston, SC
55/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2024
A transparent index Areazine derives from Census ACS medians (income, poverty, bachelor's share) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when published, not an official Census Bureau or FBI rating. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability rating, not a recommendation to move to or avoid any place. Missing inputs drop out and redistribute weight. How it is calculated.
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Median household income vs cities tracked on Areazine; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis. ACS 5-Year Estimates.
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents. State-level rate (per-city UCR reporting is incomplete/voluntary): every city in the state shares this value; lower is stronger on this axis.
Curious how Charleston stacks up nationwide? See the full tables: Healthiest Cities in America (health outcomes only) · Community Wellbeing Cities (this page's blended composite).
Where Charleston income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$92,414 Top 37% higher than 63% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20,000-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Population ranking: SC
50 SC places (10,000+ residents, ACS income on record), sorted by population. Hover a bar for its income rank in this pool.
- Columbia
Columbia, SC
142,416 residents
- Charleston
Charleston, SC
132,609 residents
- North Charleston
North Charleston, SC
108,304 residents
- Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant, SC
81,317 residents
- Rock Hill
Rock Hill, SC
71,548 residents
- Greenville
Greenville, SC
64,579 residents
- Summerville 48,848
Summerville, SC
48,848 residents
- Sumter 40,816
Sumter, SC
40,816 residents
- Goose Creek 40,633
Goose Creek, SC
40,633 residents
- Hilton Head Island 40,512
Hilton Head Island, SC
40,512 residents
What this shows Columbia tops this pool by population; the income lead belongs to Five Forks instead.
Income ranking: SC
The same 50-city SC pool, sorted by median household income instead of headcount. Tooltip carries the population rank.
- Five Forks
Five Forks, SC
$141,786 median
- Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant, SC
$124,755 median
- Fort Mill
Fort Mill, SC
$121,823 median
- Bluffton
Bluffton, SC
$111,281 median
- Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head Island, SC
$94,657 median
- Charleston
Charleston, SC
$92,414 median
- Goose Creek
Goose Creek, SC
$88,178 median
- Hanahan
Hanahan, SC
$87,984 median
- Lexington
Lexington, SC
$87,126 median
- North Augusta
North Augusta, SC
$86,092 median
What this shows Five Forks posts the highest place-level median income in SC; Columbia is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Charleston, SC beyond the headline numbers
Charleston sits inside Charleston County, South Carolina, at roughly 32.78°N, -79.93°W. Population 132,609, $92,414 median household income. Median home value $509,700, median rent $1,722. Poverty rate 12.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
6 hospitals in/around Charleston, 3.4/5 avg rating, 5 with an ER. Climate: 67.2°F annual average, 44.5" precipitation.
Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 22.9% in Charleston, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
A bachelor's degree or higher is common in Charleston: 58.3% of adults, the highest quarter of reporting cities -- a labor pool skewed toward credentialed work.
The median home in Charleston costs around 5.5 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.
19.4% of Charleston workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.
Charleston's labor market runs tight: 3.3% unemployment, in the lowest quarter of reporting cities.
Median rent in Charleston, SC runs $1,722/month, above the midpoint for reporting cities -- worth weighing against the income figures on this page.
Poverty in Charleston, SC stands at 12.3%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Charleston from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
A Decade of Change 2013–2024
County-level trend (Charleston County): Charleston's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economic Snapshot
The clearest outlier in Charleston's numbers is median rent: $1,722/mo, which is 12% above what's typical across the tracked-city set. A second figure worth noting: median household income at $92,414, 3% above the tracked-city average.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 12.3% |
| Unemployment | 3.3% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 58.3% |
| Work From Home | 19.4% |
| Public Transit | 0.7% |
Headcount
Health at a Glance 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Nearby Healthcare 6 total
CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating (1-5): a composite score across dozens of reported measures, not a single outcome guarantee for any patient. It isn't adjusted for patient case mix and isn't directly comparable across hospital types, a critical-access facility and a large teaching hospital aren't rated on the same measure set.
Climate
NOAA 1991-2020 NormalsCost of Living
BEA 20241.0% above national average
Metro area: Charleston-North Charleston, SC (MSA)
Source: BEA Regional Price Parities via FRED. RPP of 100 = national average.
NFIP Flood Claim History
FEMA NFIP, county-levelCharleston County has recorded 3,957 National Flood Insurance Program claims totaling $87.9M in payouts since 2016.
1,495 claims trace back to Hurricane Irma, the biggest named event in the county's flood-claim history.
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims, via OpenFEMA. County-level data: individual claims are not attributed to a specific city or address by FEMA.
What alerts and safety updates affect Charleston?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Charleston right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet SC-CHARLESTON-SC · Charleston
Charleston: 3 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-TRACE 3 on record
- WX-LED 100% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Los Angeles
Tagged alert mix: Charleston
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
3
What this shows 3 tagged notices on record for Charleston.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Los Angeles, CA (3 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Charleston; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse South Carolina state hubs · Methodology
Other cities with a matching alert count 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (3 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Related reading
Frequently Asked Questions 9
What is the population of Charleston, SC? ▼
What is the median household income in Charleston? ▼
What is the median home value in Charleston? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Charleston? ▼
How many hospitals are in Charleston? ▼
What is the median age in Charleston? ▼
What is the climate like in Charleston? ▼
What is the cost of living in Charleston? ▼
What is the flood claim history for Charleston? ▼
Cities nationwide with a comparable poverty or income figure 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Charleston, both outside South Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside SC (12.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside SC ($92,414 here).
Compare Charleston with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Charleston's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Charleston area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Charleston against South Carolina peers on any ranking lens. Explore South Carolina
U.S. Census ACS supplies the place-level population and economics figures (income, home value, poverty, education); CDC PLACES supplies health; hospital counts reflect nearby facilities. County-level trends carry their own label.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Charleston County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-16.