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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-LADSON-SC · Ladson, SC 16,261 pop · income 65th pct · 48 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 Ladson
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ladson on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Dentsville · lowest
44,029
Dentsville · lowest
44,029 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #1
East York · near
83,030
East York · near
83,030 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #2
Ladson · this city
83,031
Ladson · this city
83,031 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #3
Mound Station · near
83,036
Mound Station · near
83,036 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #4
Wilberforce · near
83,036
Wilberforce · near
83,036 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #5
Touchet · near
83,036
Touchet · near
83,036 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #6
Ocean Pointe · highest
143,394
Ocean Pointe · highest
143,394 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 Ladson 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: 16,261.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Ladson places in the 65th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
65th
percentile, household income
49th
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: Ladson, SC
Ladson is a small town in South Carolina, home to 16,261 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Ladson brings in $83,031 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.6%. Typical homes in Ladson are valued around $222,100, and the median resident age is 31.8 years. About 19.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 61.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 7 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts South Carolina's average monthly utility costs around $224 (state average). Workers in Ladson report an average commute of 28.4 minutes, with 77.7% driving alone and 9.0% working from home. 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 Ladson'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 housing and income to schools and households to within-city variation to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ladson, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history; 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 Ladson?
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 77.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 28.4 minutes.
How far does income reach against housing in Ladson?
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 10.6%, 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.
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.
PlainCities matches 48 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ladson?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Red Hill (16,480 residents, $62,132 income); Seven Oaks (15,990 residents, $64,003 income); Berea (16,642 residents, $48,104 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mountain Home, ID (16,265 residents); Fairview Heights, IL (16,255 residents); Bellevue, WI (16,255 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Ladson?
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 19.6% 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.
Matched public schools
7
Bachelor's degree+
19.6%
Poverty estimate
10.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 10.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
C-
City profile score · Ladson, SC
52/100
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 C+
$83,031
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.6%
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).
Ladson profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Household income: 62/100 (C+) · $83,031
Poverty rate: 37/100 (F) · 10.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 33/100 (F) · 19.6%
How does Ladson compare to other US cities?
Here's how Ladson stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income65% higher than other cities
Home value49% 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 Ladson 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 Ladson near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ladson ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ladson only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#57 of 403
86th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#109 of 404
73rd percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#248 of 439
43rd percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#199 of 441
54th 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
65th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Ladson's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$222,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 51% 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
Ladson's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,895 of 15,516
More affordable than 68% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#520 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.7×, Ladson sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,895 of 15,516 and #520 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
$83,031Ladson, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ladson, 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 Ladson, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
16,261
Median Income
$83,031
Median Home Value
$222,100
Median Age
31.8
Poverty Rate
10.6%
Labor force participation
61.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.6%
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
28.4 minutes
Drive Alone
77.7%
Carpool
10.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
9.0%
Other
1.6%
Based on 7,638 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 Ladson. 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 Ladson 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 Ladson sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ladson 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.