City safety & data profile

GaffneySC

Gaffney, SC is a 13K-resident city in Cherokee County with a median household income of $41,089.

Cherokee County, South Carolina. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Gaffney, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Gaffney has a population larger than 16% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $137,700, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-05

13K
Population (place)
Bottom 17%
By size
$41,089
Median income (place)
$137,700
Median home (place)
29.1%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Gaffney

Gaffney posts a median household income higher than 2% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Gaffney area.

Bottom 3%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near Gaffney

Where Gaffney income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$41,089 Bottom 2% higher than 2% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Gaffney $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-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

Largest cities in SC

Population among 50 SC places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Columbia is the largest SC city on this list; Five Forks leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in SC

Median household income among the same 50-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Five Forks posts the highest place-level median income in SC; Columbia is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Gaffney, SC beyond the headline numbers

Gaffney sits inside Cherokee County, South Carolina, at roughly 35.07°N, -81.65°W. Population 12,566, $41,089 median household income. Median home value $137,700, median rent $887. Poverty rate 29.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Gaffney, 2/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

29.1% of Gaffney, SC residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in Gaffney costs roughly 3.4 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.

Only 4.9% of Gaffney workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.

Among the CDC measures on this page, stroke departs furthest from its peer median: 5.1% in Gaffney, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Gaffney's median age is 31.9 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Gaffney 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.

Population (place)
12,566
Gaffney · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$41,089
-54% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$137,700
-67% vs avg
Median Age (place)
31.9
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Cherokee County): Gaffney'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.

20132024
Population
57K+2%
Median Income
$50,288+47%
Median Home Value
$142,000+70%
Poverty Rate
18.4%-20%
Unemployment
6.2%-59%

Economics

Economics indicators for Gaffney, SC
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$887/mo
Poverty Rate
29.1% +135% vs avg
Unemployment 10.5%
Bachelor's Degree+ 23.1%
Work From Home 4.9%
Public Transit 0.2%

Population

White 41.3%
African American 40.7%
Asian 0.5%
Two or More Ethnicities 9.3%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
42.4%
Short Sleep Duration
42.1%
Obesity
40.8%
Physical Inactivity
34%
Frequent Mental Distress
19.2%
Current Smoking
17.4%
Diabetes
17%
Frequent Physical Distress
16.5%
Lack of Health Insurance
15.2%
Binge Drinking
14.2%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 54.9%
Annual Checkup 80.5%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
10.9%
Coronary Heart Disease
7.8%
Stroke
5.1%

Hospitals 1 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
0
★★★
0
★★
1
★
0
Average Rating
2/5
Total Hospitals
1
With ER
1
CHEROKEE MEDICAL CENTER
GAFFNEY · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★☆☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Gaffney?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Gaffney right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet SC-GAFFNEY · Gaffney

Gaffney: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Gaffney; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse South Carolina state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Gaffney in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Gaffney, SC? ▼
Gaffney, SC has a population of 12,566 people, located in Cherokee County, South Carolina.
What is the median household income in Gaffney? ▼
The median household income in Gaffney, SC is $41,089 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 29.1%.
What is the median home value in Gaffney? ▼
The median home value in Gaffney, SC is $137,700. Median rent is $887/month.
What are the top health concerns in Gaffney? ▼
The top health indicators in Gaffney include High Blood Pressure (42.4%), Short Sleep Duration (42.1%), Obesity (40.8%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Gaffney? ▼
Gaffney has 1 hospital with an average rating of 2/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Gaffney? ▼
The median age in Gaffney, SC is 31.9 years. 23.1% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Gaffney, 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 (29.1% here).

West Memphis, AR 29.1% College Station, TX 29.2% Muncie, IN 29.2% Port Arthur, TX 29%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside SC ($41,089 here).

Atlantic City, NJ $41,028 Paris, TN $41,012 Forest Park, GA $41,211 Picayune, MS $41,213

Compare Gaffney 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.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Shelby, NC 20K Spartanburg, SC 38K Kings Mountain, NC 11K Gastonia, NC 75K Lincolnton, NC 11K Greer, SC 28K Belmont, NC 11K Five Forks, SC 14K
All cities in South Carolina → Compare Gaffney vs Shelby → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Gaffney'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 Gaffney 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 Gaffney against South Carolina peers on any ranking lens. Explore South Carolina

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

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 (Cherokee 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.