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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-COLUMBIA-SC · Columbia, SC 138,019 pop · income 28th pct · 98 tracts
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 Columbia
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Columbia on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Carolina zona… · lowest
35,843
Carolina zona… · lowest
35,843 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #1
Villas · near
55,641
Villas · near
55,641 median HH income
45.8% of the leader · rank #2
Kingsville · near
55,649
Kingsville · near
55,649 median HH income
45.9% of the leader · rank #3
Columbia · this city
55,653
Columbia · this city
55,653 median HH income
45.9% of the leader · rank #4
Corydon · near
55,655
Corydon · near
55,655 median HH income
45.9% of the leader · rank #5
McChord AFB · near
55,662
McChord AFB · near
55,662 median HH income
45.9% of the leader · rank #6
Mount Pleasant · highest
121,364
Mount Pleasant · highest
121,364 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 Columbia 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: 138,019.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Columbia - the verdict
Columbia ranks in the 28th percentile for household income and the 7th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
54th
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
7th
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: Columbia, SC
South Carolina's Columbia is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 138,019 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Columbia report a median income of $55,653 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.0%. Typical homes in Columbia are valued around $243,500, and the median resident age is 28.7 years. 46.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 54.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 2,148 residential building permits were authorized in Columbia (Building Boom), up 353% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Columbia's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4002.5 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Columbia's yearly average temperature at 64.3°F with 45.2 inches of precipitation per year and 1.2 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in South Carolina run below the national norm: the state registers 93.7 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,155 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $224 across South Carolina, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Columbia workers runs 15.7 minutes, with 62.9% driving alone and 9.8% working from home. 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 Columbia'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 schools and households to population change to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to reported crime to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Columbia, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Columbia?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
The NCES join finds 75 public schools within the city match. 46.1% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Columbia?
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.
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Charleston (152,014 residents, $90,038 income); North Charleston (117,460 residents, $62,789 income); Mount Pleasant (92,662 residents, $121,364 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are West Valley City, UT (137,955 residents); Warren, MI (138,128 residents); Hampton, VA (137,334 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.
PlainCities matches 98 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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.
Population change
Is Columbia growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +11,175 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2,148 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
135,860
2025 estimate
147,035
Period change
+8.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Columbia?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 62.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.7 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
62.9%
Work from home
9.8%
Public transit
1.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 69,918 workers age 16+.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 64.3°F, with 45.2 inches of precipitation and 1.2 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for South Carolina is 70.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
70.7
Annual precipitation
45.2 in
Mean temperature
64.3°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Columbia?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4002.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 76% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
4002.5
Violent rate
769.9
Property rate
3232.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 15.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Columbia, SC
38/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A-
46.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Household income F
$55,653
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
770 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Columbia profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 46.1%
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,653
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 15.0%
Violent crime: 3/100 (F) · 770 /100k
Where Columbia sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Columbia'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 - Columbia highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Columbia, SC (this city): home $243,500, crime 4,003/100k
Warren, MI : home $181,900, crime 2,096/100k
Hampton, VA : home $234,100, crime 3,130/100k
Orange, CA : home $900,700, crime 1,514/100k
Charleston, SC : home $469,100, crime 2,379/100k
North Charleston, SC : home $267,700, crime 4,766/100k
Mount Pleasant, SC : home $667,100, crime 1,300/100k
Rock Hill, SC : home $267,400, crime 2,789/100k
Greenville, SC : home $453,300, crime 4,113/100k
Summerville, SC : home $295,700, crime 1,991/100k
How does Columbia compare to other US cities?
Here's how Columbia stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value54% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety7% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to South Carolina alone, Columbia ranks #81 of 127 South Carolina cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Columbia 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 Columbia near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Columbia ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Columbia only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#167 of 403
59th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#80 of 404
80th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#201 of 439
53rd percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#39 of 441
91st 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 7th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Columbia's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Columbia'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 Columbia's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$243,50046th percentilemore affordable than 46% 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
Columbia's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,707 of 15,516
More affordable than 25% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#379 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.4×, Columbia sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,707 of 15,516 and #379 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$55,653Columbia, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Columbia, 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 Columbia, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)46.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
138,019
Median Income
$55,653
Median Home Value
$243,500
Median Age
28.7
Poverty Rate
15.0%
Labor force participation
54.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
46.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4002.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
769.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3232.6
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
64.3°F
Annual Precipitation
45.2"
Annual Snowfall
1.2"
Schools
Total Schools
75
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Columbia's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
135,860 residents
2021
136,059 residents
2022
139,381 residents
2023
141,370 residents
2024
144,133 residents
2025
147,035 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
2,148
housing units authorized
Single-Family
833
detached homes
Multifamily
1,315
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
15.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
474
464
10
$87.7M
2020
545
541
4
$98.0M
2021
1,700
804
896
$303.8M
2022
2,131
772
1,359
$354.5M
2023
1,601
883
718
$341.9M
2024
2,148
833
1,315
$356.0M
Permit volume increased 353% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.7 minutes
Drive Alone
62.9%
Carpool
6.9%
Public Transit
1.4%
Walk
16.4%
Work from Home
9.8%
Other
2.6%
Based on 69,918 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 Columbia. 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 Columbia 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 Columbia sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Columbia 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.