Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetSC-CONWAY-SC · Conway, SC 26,082 pop · income 27th 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 Conway
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Conway on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
El Dorado · lowest
54,828
El Dorado · lowest
54,828 median HH income
25.2% of the leader · rank #1
Tice · near
54,833
Tice · near
54,833 median HH income
25.2% of the leader · rank #2
Lakemore · near
54,836
Lakemore · near
54,836 median HH income
25.2% of the leader · rank #3
Bellows Falls · near
54,836
Bellows Falls · near
54,836 median HH income
25.2% of the leader · rank #4
Conway · this city
54,841
Conway · this city
54,841 median HH income
25.2% of the leader · rank #5
Wendell · near
54,850
Wendell · near
54,850 median HH income
25.2% of the leader · rank #6
Ridgewood · highest
217,250
Ridgewood · highest
217,250 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 Conway 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: 26,082.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Conway - the verdict
Conway ranks in the 27th percentile for household income and the 24th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
27th
percentile, household income
52nd
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
24th
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: Conway, SC
South Carolina's Conway is a small city, with 26,082 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Conway households earn a median of $54,841 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.1%. Home values in Conway run a median of $236,300, and the median resident age is 34.3 years. Educational attainment runs 19.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 45.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 411 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 66% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2419.4 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 64.5°F with 55.2 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in South Carolina run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, South Carolina scores 93.7 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,155 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts South Carolina's average monthly utility costs around $224 (state average). Commute times here average 21.2 minutes, with 76.1% driving alone and 5.5% 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 Conway'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 work and mobility to reported crime to schools and households to comparison shortlist to population change to housing and income to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Conway, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count.
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.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Conway?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 21.2 minutes.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Conway?
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 2419.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 6% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
The NCES join finds 14 public schools within the city match. 19.1% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Conway?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Mauldin (25,985 residents, $81,027 income); Carolina Forest (26,373 residents, $70,647 income); Simpsonville (25,125 residents, $79,233 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Oxford, MS (26,086 residents); Ridgewood, NJ (26,076 residents); Medina, OH (26,040 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.
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 Conway growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +5,417 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +21.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 411 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+21.5%
2025 estimate
30,627
2020 estimate
25,210
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Conway?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.1%, 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. 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.
Household income
$54,841
Home value
$236,300
Value / income
4.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 64.5°F, with 55.2 inches of precipitation. 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.
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.
Mean temperature
64.5°F
Annual precipitation
55.2 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
70.7
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 15.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Conway, SC
34/100
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 F
19.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$54,841
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
445 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Conway profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 32/100 (F) · 19.1%
Household income: 27/100 (F) · $54,841
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.1%
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 445 /100k
Where Conway sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Conway'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 - Conway highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Conway, SC (this city): home $236,300, crime 2,419/100k
Oxford, MS : home $333,400, crime 1,980/100k
Ridgewood, NJ : home $882,700, crime 629/100k
Medina, OH : home $231,700, crime 871/100k
Mauldin, SC : home $242,100, crime 1,600/100k
Simpsonville, SC : home $267,500, crime 2,822/100k
North Augusta, SC : home $220,500, crime 444/100k
Lexington, SC : home $271,200, crime 1,684/100k
How does Conway compare to other US cities?
Here's how Conway stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income27% higher than other cities
Home value52% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety24% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just South Carolina and the picture shifts: Conway ranks #52 of 127 South Carolina cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Conway 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 Conway near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Conway ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Conway only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#175 of 403
57th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#92 of 404
77th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#200 of 439
54th percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#208 of 441
52nd 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
27th percentile nationally for median household income · 24th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Conway's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Conway'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 Conway's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$236,30048th percentilemore affordable than 48% 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
Conway's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,544 of 15,516
More affordable than 26% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,231 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.3×, Conway sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,544 of 15,516 and #2,231 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$54,841Conway, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Conway, 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 Conway, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)45.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
26,082
Median Income
$54,841
Median Home Value
$236,300
Median Age
34.3
Poverty Rate
15.1%
Labor force participation
45.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2419.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
444.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1974.8
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
64.5°F
Annual Precipitation
55.2"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
14
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Conway's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
25,210 residents
2021
25,715 residents
2022
27,521 residents
2023
28,358 residents
2024
29,780 residents
2025
30,627 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
411
housing units authorized
Single-Family
411
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
15.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
248
246
2
$37.6M
2020
205
205
0
$44.3M
2021
371
355
16
$92.9M
2022
234
234
0
$64.7M
2023
251
233
18
$76.9M
2024
411
411
0
$133.6M
Permit volume increased 66% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
21.2 minutes
Drive Alone
76.1%
Carpool
9.6%
Public Transit
1.9%
Walk
3.5%
Work from Home
5.5%
Other
3.4%
Based on 10,107 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 Conway. 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 Conway 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 Conway sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Conway 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.