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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-LAMAR-SC · Lamar, SC 1,446 pop · income 12th 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 Lamar
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lamar on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Winnsboro Mil… · lowest
34,426
Winnsboro Mil… · lowest
34,426 median HH income
24.3% of the leader · rank #1
Lamar · this city
44,000
Lamar · this city
44,000 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #2
Fox · near
44,000
Fox · near
44,000 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #3
Ty Ty · near
44,000
Ty Ty · near
44,000 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #4
Church Point · near
44,000
Church Point · near
44,000 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #5
Henning · near
44,000
Henning · near
44,000 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #6
Mendon · highest
141,563
Mendon · highest
141,563 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 Lamar 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: 1,446.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lamar - the verdict
Lamar ranks in the 12th percentile for household income and the 7th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
12th
percentile, household income
14th
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
7th
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: Lamar, SC
Lamar is a small town in South Carolina, home to 1,446 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Lamar report a median income of $44,000 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 30.3%. Lamar's housing stock carries a median value of $112,700, and the median resident age is 29.7 years. 28.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 55.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 6 residential building permits were authorized in Lamar (Building Boom), up 50% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Lamar's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 4052.4 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in South Carolina run around $224, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Lamar'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 population change to work and mobility to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lamar, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count, 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.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Lamar?
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 30.3%, 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 Lamar?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are St. Stephen (1,460 residents, $59,688 income); Winnsboro Mills (1,426 residents, $34,426 income); Holly Hill (1,415 residents, $34,792 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fowler, MI (1,446 residents); Wolcott, NY (1,446 residents); Arlington, OH (1,446 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.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +6 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 6 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lamar?
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 4052.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 78% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
4052.4
Violent rate
0.0
Total reported rate
4052.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 28.6% 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
3
Bachelor's degree+
28.6%
Poverty estimate
30.3%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Low income · poverty 30.3% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
D
City profile score · Lamar, SC
45/100
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Bachelor's+ share C
28.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$44,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
30.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Lamar profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 56/100 (C) · 28.6%
Household income: 12/100 (F) · $44,000
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 30.3%
Where Lamar sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lamar'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 - Lamar highlighted among 23 peers.Read the chart values
Lamar, SC (this city): home $112,700, crime 4,052/100k
Holly Hill, SC : home $193,500, crime 5,802/100k
Chapin, SC : home $200,400, crime 1,650/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Lamar compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lamar stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income12% higher than other cities
Home value14% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety7% 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, Lamar ranks #82 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 Lamar 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 Lamar near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lamar ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lamar only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#265 of 403
34th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#273 of 404
32nd percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#57 of 439
87th percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#114 of 441
74th 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
12th percentile nationally for median household income · 7th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lamar's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lamar'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 Lamar's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$112,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 86% 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
Lamar's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,324 of 15,516
More affordable than 72% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,871 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Lamar sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,324 of 15,516 and #3,871 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
$44,000Lamar, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lamar, 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 Lamar, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)28.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)30.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,446
Median Income
$44,000
Median Home Value
$112,700
Median Age
29.7
Poverty Rate
30.3%
Labor force participation
55.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
28.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4052.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4052.4
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lamar's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
856 residents
2021
859 residents
2022
849 residents
2023
845 residents
2024
855 residents
2025
862 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
6
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
6
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$0.4M
2020
5
5
0
$0.5M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
1
1
0
$0.1M
2023
8
0
8
$0.9M
2024
6
0
6
$0.7M
Permit volume increased 50% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
75.7%
Carpool
8.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
14.9%
Other
1.3%
Based on 569 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 Lamar. 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 Lamar 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 Lamar sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lamar 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.