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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-FORT-MILL-SC · Fort Mill, SC 28,281 pop · income 89th 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 Fort Mill
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fort Mill on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Anderson · lowest
44,321
Anderson · lowest
44,321 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #1
Stapleton · near
127,535
Stapleton · near
127,535 median HH income
95.6% of the leader · rank #2
Fort Mill · this city
127,537
Fort Mill · this city
127,537 median HH income
95.6% of the leader · rank #3
Grandview · near
127,537
Grandview · near
127,537 median HH income
95.6% of the leader · rank #4
Cherry Grove · near
127,558
Cherry Grove · near
127,558 median HH income
95.7% of the leader · rank #5
Crown Heights · near
127,569
Crown Heights · near
127,569 median HH income
95.7% of the leader · rank #6
Glen Ellyn · highest
133,346
Glen Ellyn · highest
133,346 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 Fort Mill 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: 28,281.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Fort Mill - the verdict
Nationally, Fort Mill sits in the 89th percentile for household income and the 78th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
89th
percentile, household income
82nd
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
78th
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: Fort Mill, SC
South Carolina's Fort Mill is a small city, with 28,281 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Fort Mill brings in $127,537 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.3%. Fort Mill's housing stock carries a median value of $457,000, and the median resident age is 38.2 years. About 58.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 67.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 1,066 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Growing), up 6% from five years earlier. Fort Mill reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 677.9 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. 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). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.7 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Fort Mill'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to schools and households to population change to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fort Mill, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
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. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Fort Mill?
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 Anderson (29,563 residents, $44,321 income); Carolina Forest (26,373 residents, $70,647 income); Conway (26,082 residents, $54,841 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Rockledge, FL (28,279 residents); Glen Ellyn, IL (28,270 residents); Bergenfield, NJ (28,269 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Fort Mill?
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 home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Fort Mill?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
What does the education layer cover for Fort Mill?
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 17 public schools within the city match. 58.1% 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.
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 Fort Mill growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +13,478 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +53.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,066 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
25,195
2025 estimate
38,673
Period change
+53.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Fort Mill?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 677.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 70% lower 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
677.9
Violent rate
45.9
Property rate
632.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
A-
City profile score · Fort Mill, SC
84/100
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+
58.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A
$127,537
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime A
46 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate A-
2.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Fort Mill profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 58.1%
Household income: 89/100 (A) · $127,537
Violent crime: 85/100 (A) · 46 /100k
Poverty rate: 84/100 (A-) · 2.3%
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Where Fort Mill sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Fort Mill'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 - Fort Mill highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Fort Mill, SC (this city): home $457,000, crime 678/100k
Glen Ellyn, IL : home $522,600, crime 628/100k
Bergenfield, NJ : home $469,200, crime 281/100k
Aberdeen, SD : home $205,500, crime 1,678/100k
Forney, TX : home $323,500, crime 808/100k
Anderson, SC : home $199,600, crime 6,265/100k
Conway, SC : home $236,300, crime 2,419/100k
Mauldin, SC : home $242,100, crime 1,600/100k
Bluffton, SC : home $444,500, crime 944/100k
Simpsonville, SC : home $267,500, crime 2,822/100k
How does Fort Mill compare to other US cities?
Here's how Fort Mill stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income89% higher than other cities
Home value82% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety78% 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, Fort Mill ranks #5 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 Fort Mill 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 Fort Mill near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fort Mill ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fort Mill only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#14 of 403
97th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#24 of 404
94th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#385 of 439
12th percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#21 of 441
95th 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
89th percentile nationally for median household income · 78th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Fort Mill's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Fort Mill'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 Fort Mill's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$457,00018th percentilemore affordable than 18% 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
Fort Mill's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,294 of 15,516
More affordable than 40% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,566 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.6×, Fort Mill sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,294 of 15,516 and #1,566 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
$127,537Fort Mill, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fort Mill, 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 Fort Mill, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)58.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
28,281
Median Income
$127,537
Median Home Value
$457,000
Median Age
38.2
Poverty Rate
2.3%
Labor force participation
67.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
58.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
677.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
45.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
632.0
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
17
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Fort Mill's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
25,195 residents
2021
27,930 residents
2022
30,846 residents
2023
33,574 residents
2024
36,207 residents
2025
38,673 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
1,066
housing units authorized
Single-Family
919
detached homes
Multifamily
147
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
37.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1,010
815
195
$327.8M
2020
1,114
944
170
$373.3M
2021
1,276
1,074
202
$425.7M
2022
1,172
929
243
$376.0M
2023
1,067
878
189
$350.7M
2024
1,066
919
147
$361.3M
Permit volume increased 6% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
68.1%
Carpool
4.2%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
25.1%
Other
1.5%
Based on 13,922 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 Fort Mill. 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 Fort Mill 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 Fort Mill sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fort Mill 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.