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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-CAYCE-SC · Cayce, SC 13,718 pop · income 32nd pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Cayce
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cayce on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Isla Vista · lowest
24,428
Isla Vista · lowest
24,428 median HH income
17.3% of the leader · rank #1
Cayce · this city
58,095
Cayce · this city
58,095 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #2
Pine Flat · near
58,095
Pine Flat · near
58,095 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #3
Greenville · near
58,095
Greenville · near
58,095 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #4
Bangor · near
58,096
Bangor · near
58,096 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #5
Newark · near
58,096
Newark · near
58,096 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #6
Tega Cay · highest
141,037
Tega Cay · highest
141,037 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Cayce on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 13,718.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cayce - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Cayce lands in the 32nd percentile for household income and the 11th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
32nd
percentile, household income
30th
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
11th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Cayce, SC
South Carolina's Cayce is a small town, with 13,718 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Cayce brings in $58,095 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.6%. Cayce's housing stock carries a median value of $158,900, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. About 30.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 62.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 6 residential building permits were authorized in Cayce (Construction Slowdown), down 50% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Cayce's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3514.8 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in South Carolina run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts South Carolina at 93.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,155 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in South Carolina run around $224, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 19.1 minutes, with 86.1% driving alone and 5.6% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 70.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cayce's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cayce, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Cayce?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -98 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 6 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cayce?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Beaufort (13,660 residents, $59,454 income); Tega Cay (13,267 residents, $141,037 income); Orangeburg (13,189 residents, $33,066 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Isla Vista, CA (13,717 residents); Plover, WI (13,713 residents); Ephrata, PA (13,729 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 30.5% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cayce?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3514.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 54% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2781.0
Violent rate
733.8
Total reported rate
3514.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 86.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.1 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
5.6%
Drive alone
86.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 7,081 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 13.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Cayce, SC
37/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living B
93.7 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share C
30.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$58,095
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
734 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cayce profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 59/100 (C) · 30.5%
Household income: 32/100 (F) · $58,095
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.6%
Violent crime: 4/100 (F) · 734 /100k
Where Cayce sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cayce's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Cayce highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Cayce, SC (this city): home $158,900, crime 3,515/100k
Plover, WI : home $244,500, crime 1,118/100k
Ephrata, PA : home $215,100, crime 932/100k
Azle, TX : home $263,800, crime 1,878/100k
Cornelius, OR : home $419,000, crime 1,925/100k
Marshall, MO : home $145,900, crime 1,155/100k
Beaufort, SC : home $310,400, crime 4,269/100k
Tega Cay, SC : home $494,500, crime 325/100k
Orangeburg, SC : home $145,000, crime 7,455/100k
Moncks Corner, SC : home $312,800, crime 2,358/100k
Gaffney, SC : home $141,100, crime 4,404/100k
How does Cayce compare to other US cities?
Here's how Cayce stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income32% higher than other cities
Home value30% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety11% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at South Carolina, Cayce ranks #69 of 127 South Carolina cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cayce against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to South Carolina only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
South Carolina-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Cayce near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cayce ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cayce only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#151 of 403
63rd percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#200 of 404
50th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#215 of 439
51st percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#99 of 441
77th percentile in South Carolina
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within South Carolina only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
32nd percentile nationally for median household income · 11th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cayce's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cayce's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Cayce's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$158,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 70% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. 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 ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Cayce's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,231 of 15,516
More affordable than 66% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#590 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.7×, Cayce sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,231 of 15,516 and #590 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$58,095Cayce, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cayce, SC median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Cayce, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)30.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
13,718
Median Income
$58,095
Median Home Value
$158,900
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
13.6%
Labor force participation
62.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
30.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3514.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
733.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2781.0
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cayce's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
13,778 residents
2021
13,788 residents
2022
13,720 residents
2023
13,731 residents
2024
13,715 residents
2025
13,680 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
6
housing units authorized
Single-Family
6
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
12
12
0
$1.6M
2020
9
9
0
$1.3M
2021
12
12
0
$1.9M
2022
3
3
0
$0.5M
2023
1
1
0
$0.1M
2024
6
6
0
$1.5M
Permit volume decreased 50% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.1 minutes
Drive Alone
86.1%
Carpool
6.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
5.6%
Based on 7,081 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
South Carolina statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $224
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across South Carolina at $224 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are South Carolina statewide averages, not a meter reading for Cayce. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
South Carolina's BEA cost-of-living index is 93.7 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Cayce is $1,155/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to South Carolina statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.7 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a South Carolina statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Cayce sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cayce compares to similar-size South Carolina cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.