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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-LAURENS-SC · Laurens, SC 9,307 pop · income 28th pct · 20 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 Laurens
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Laurens on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
San Sebastián… · lowest
20,112
San Sebastián… · lowest
20,112 median HH income
15.8% of the leader · rank #1
Laurens · this city
55,207
Laurens · this city
55,207 median HH income
43.4% of the leader · rank #2
Pleasant Hill · near
55,208
Pleasant Hill · near
55,208 median HH income
43.4% of the leader · rank #3
Berger · near
55,208
Berger · near
55,208 median HH income
43.4% of the leader · rank #4
St. Bonaventu… · near
55,208
St. Bonaventu… · near
55,208 median HH income
43.4% of the leader · rank #5
Belle Valley · near
55,208
Belle Valley · near
55,208 median HH income
43.4% of the leader · rank #6
Severance · highest
127,257
Severance · highest
127,257 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 Laurens 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: 9,307.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Laurens - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Laurens lands in the 28th percentile for household income and the 8th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
24th
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
8th
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: Laurens, SC
South Carolina's Laurens is a small town, with 9,307 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $55,207 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 17.0%. Laurens's housing stock carries a median value of $139,800, and the median resident age is 42.2 years. Educational attainment runs 15.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 50.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 24 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 71% from five years earlier. Laurens's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3929.6 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Laurens's yearly average temperature at 61.2°F with 46.7 inches of precipitation per year and 1.3 inches of snowfall.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts South Carolina's average monthly utility costs around $224 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 70.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Laurens'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 climate and hazard context to schools and households to within-city variation to reported crime to housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Laurens, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Laurens?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.1%. 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. 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.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.2°F, with 46.7 inches of precipitation and 1.3 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
PlainCities matches 20 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Laurens?
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 Hardeeville (9,293 residents, $78,233 income); Lugoff (9,475 residents, $61,316 income); Litchfield Beach (9,544 residents, $74,451 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Chesapeake Ranch Estates, MD (9,307 residents); Bohemia, NY (9,306 residents); Lake Norman of Catawba, NC (9,308 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.
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 Laurens?
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 6 public schools within the city match. 15.0% 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.
Poverty estimate
17.0%
Bachelor's degree+
15.0%
Matched public schools
6
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Laurens?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3929.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 72% higher 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
3929.6
Violent rate
928.4
Property rate
3001.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Laurens?
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 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.5×
Home value
$139,800
Household income
$55,207
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -15 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 24 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
2020 estimate
9,342
2025 estimate
9,327
Period change
-0.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 17.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Laurens, SC
28/100
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.
Household income F
$55,207
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
928 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Laurens profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,207
Bachelor's+ share: 20/100 (F) · 15.0%
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 17.0%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 928 /100k
Where Laurens sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Laurens'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 - Laurens highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Laurens, SC (this city): home $139,800, crime 3,930/100k
Severance, CO : home $493,800, crime 625/100k
Sanger, TX : home $284,500, crime 1,221/100k
Hardeeville, SC : home $467,500, crime 1,667/100k
Seneca, SC : home $223,100, crime 2,339/100k
Lancaster, SC : home $226,300, crime 7,243/100k
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 Laurens compare to other US cities?
Laurens measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value24% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety8% 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, Laurens ranks #80 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 Laurens 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 Laurens near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Laurens ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Laurens only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#171 of 403
58th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#231 of 404
43rd percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#165 of 439
62nd percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#279 of 441
36th 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 8th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Laurens's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Laurens'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 Laurens's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$139,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 76% 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
Laurens's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,167 of 15,516
More affordable than 73% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,744 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Laurens sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,167 of 15,516 and #3,744 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
$55,207Laurens, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Laurens, 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 Laurens, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
9,307
Median Income
$55,207
Median Home Value
$139,800
Median Age
42.2
Poverty Rate
17.0%
Labor force participation
50.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3929.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
928.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3001.2
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
61.2°F
Annual Precipitation
46.7"
Annual Snowfall
1.3"
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Laurens's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
9,342 residents
2021
9,319 residents
2022
9,285 residents
2023
9,316 residents
2024
9,339 residents
2025
9,327 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
24
housing units authorized
Single-Family
24
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
14
14
0
$0.9M
2020
30
30
0
$4.5M
2021
28
28
0
$2.8M
2022
12
12
0
$2.7M
2023
8
8
0
$2.1M
2024
24
24
0
$5.7M
Permit volume increased 71% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.1%
Carpool
18.1%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
4.8%
Other
0.9%
Based on 3,592 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 Laurens. 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 Laurens 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 Laurens sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Laurens 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.