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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-GRAY-COURT-SC · Gray Court, SC 731 pop · income 42nd 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 Gray Court
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Gray Court on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
McKenzie · lowest
31,250
McKenzie · lowest
31,250 median HH income
16.2% of the leader · rank #1
Gray Court · this city
64,286
Gray Court · this city
64,286 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #2
Maxwell · near
64,286
Maxwell · near
64,286 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #3
Discovery Har… · near
64,286
Discovery Har… · near
64,286 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #4
Cornell · near
64,286
Cornell · near
64,286 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #5
Onarga · near
64,286
Onarga · near
64,286 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #6
DeBordieu Col… · highest
193,182
DeBordieu Col… · highest
193,182 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Gray Court on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 731.
Gray Court ranks in the 42nd percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
42nd
percentile, household income
33rd
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Gray Court, SC
Gray Court is a small town in South Carolina, home to 731 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Gray Court households earn a median of $64,286 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.0%. Typical homes in Gray Court are valued around $168,800, and the median resident age is 39.4 years. About 13.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 61.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. Natural-hazard exposure scores 70.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Gray Court'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 schools and households to population change to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Gray Court, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Gray Court?
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 13.3% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Is Gray Court 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 +39 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.0% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Gray Court?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.0%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Gray Court?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Chickasaw Point (730 residents, $79,464 income); McClellanville (734 residents, $104,236 income); Hamer (735 residents, $45,417 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are McKenzie, AL (731 residents); Salome, AZ (731 residents); Seligman, AZ (731 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Gray Court?
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 84.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
4.8%
Drive alone
84.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 330 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 10.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
D
City profile score · Gray Court, SC
43/100
4 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.
Household income D
$64,286
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
10.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
13.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Gray Court profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Household income: 41/100 (D) · $64,286
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 10.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 15/100 (F) · 13.3%
How does Gray Court compare to other US cities?
Gray Court measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income42% higher than other cities
Home value33% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Gray Court 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 Gray Court near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Gray Court ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Gray Court only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#119 of 403
70th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#180 of 404
55th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#259 of 439
40th percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#303 of 441
31st 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
42nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Gray Court's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$168,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 67% 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
Gray Court's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,649 of 15,516
More affordable than 70% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,120 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Gray Court sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,649 of 15,516 and #4,120 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$64,286Gray Court, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Gray Court, 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 Gray Court, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)13.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
731
Median Income
$64,286
Median Home Value
$168,800
Median Age
39.4
Poverty Rate
10.0%
Labor force participation
61.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
13.3%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Gray Court's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
774 residents
2021
773 residents
2022
774 residents
2023
783 residents
2024
798 residents
2025
813 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.8%
Carpool
5.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
4.8%
Other
5.2%
Based on 330 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 Gray Court. 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 Gray Court 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 Gray Court sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Gray Court 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, NCES CCD, 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.