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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-LAKE-CITY-SC · Lake City, SC 6,032 pop · income 4th 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 Lake City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lake City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Marion · lowest
27,767
Marion · lowest
27,767 median HH income
23.5% of the leader · rank #1
Lake City · this city
35,000
Lake City · this city
35,000 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #2
Elim · near
35,000
Elim · near
35,000 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #3
Bowman · near
35,000
Bowman · near
35,000 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #4
Jacksonville · near
35,000
Jacksonville · near
35,000 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #5
Freeman Spur · near
35,000
Freeman Spur · near
35,000 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #6
Solvang · highest
118,208
Solvang · highest
118,208 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 Lake City 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: 6,032.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lake City - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Lake City places in the 4th percentile for household income and the 2nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
4th
percentile, household income
22nd
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
2nd
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: Lake City, SC
Lake City is a small town in South Carolina, home to 6,032 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Lake City households earn a median of $35,000 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.2%. Lake City's housing stock carries a median value of $133,700, and the median resident age is 44.1 years. 20.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 51.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 36 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 25% from five years earlier. Lake City's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 6552.1 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Lake City's yearly average temperature at 64.2°F with 49.8 inches of precipitation per year.
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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,155 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $224 across South Carolina, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Lake City'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to climate and hazard context to population change to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lake City, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, 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.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Lake City?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.2%, 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 Lake City?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Darlington (6,128 residents, $31,240 income); Piedmont (5,786 residents, $51,896 income); Lyman (6,317 residents, $69,688 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Nazareth, PA (6,032 residents); Sheridan, CO (6,031 residents); Wilmore, KY (6,031 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lake City?
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 6552.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 187% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 64.2°F, with 49.8 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.
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 Lake City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -85 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 36 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
-1.4%
2025 estimate
5,940
2020 estimate
6,025
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Lake City?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 20.0% 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
5
Bachelor's degree+
20.0%
Poverty estimate
11.2%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Lake City?
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 75.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.4%
Work from home
2.5%
Drive alone
75.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,644 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 11.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Lake City, SC
26/100
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.
Poverty rate F
11.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$35,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
1,802 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Lake City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Poverty rate: 35/100 (F) · 11.2%
Bachelor's+ share: 34/100 (F) · 20.0%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $35,000
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,802 /100k
Where Lake City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lake City'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 - Lake City highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Lake City, SC (this city): home $133,700, crime 6,552/100k
Nazareth, PA : home $236,900, crime 758/100k
Sheridan, CO : home $360,900, crime 7,906/100k
Wilmore, KY : home $210,700, crime 473/100k
Pauls Valley, OK : home $84,100, crime 2,542/100k
Solvang, CA : home $936,900, crime 996/100k
Darlington, SC : home $163,000, crime 7,018/100k
Lyman, SC : home $239,800, crime 959/100k
Marion, SC : home $119,400, crime 6,190/100k
Dillon, SC : home $110,000, crime 9,039/100k
How does Lake City compare to other US cities?
Lake City measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income4% higher than other cities
Home value22% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety2% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at South Carolina, Lake City ranks #111 of 127 South Carolina cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lake City 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 Lake City near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lake City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lake City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#342 of 403
15th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#237 of 404
41st percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#239 of 439
45th percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#196 of 441
55th 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
4th percentile nationally for median household income · 2nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lake City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lake City'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 Lake City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$133,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 78% 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
Lake City's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,130 of 15,516
More affordable than 35% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,997 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.8×, Lake City sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,130 of 15,516 and #7,997 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$35,000Lake City, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lake City, 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 Lake City, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,032
Median Income
$35,000
Median Home Value
$133,700
Median Age
44.1
Poverty Rate
11.2%
Labor force participation
51.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
6552.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1802.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4749.9
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
64.2°F
Annual Precipitation
49.8"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lake City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,025 residents
2021
6,038 residents
2022
5,986 residents
2023
5,959 residents
2024
5,932 residents
2025
5,940 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
36
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
36
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
48
3
45
$6.0M
2020
47
2
45
$5.9M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
5
5
0
$0.4M
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
36
0
36
$9.8M
Permit volume decreased 25% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
75.7%
Carpool
20.3%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
1.1%
Work from Home
2.5%
Based on 2,644 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 Lake City. 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 Lake City 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 Lake City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lake City 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.