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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-SANTEE-SC · Santee, SC 1,179 pop · income 6th 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 Santee
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Santee on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Georgetown-Qu… · lowest
36,838
Georgetown-Qu… · lowest
36,838 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #1
Avon Park · near
36,845
Avon Park · near
36,845 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #2
Santee · this city
36,856
Santee · this city
36,856 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #3
Spring Glen · near
36,864
Spring Glen · near
36,864 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #4
Monterey · near
36,866
Monterey · near
36,866 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #5
Hartford City · near
36,868
Hartford City · near
36,868 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #6
Gotha · highest
181,645
Gotha · highest
181,645 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 Santee 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: 1,179.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Santee - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Santee places in the 6th percentile for household income and the 1st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
6th
percentile, household income
31st
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
1st
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: Santee, SC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,179 residents in Santee, a small town within South Carolina. Median household income here is $36,856 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 37.7%. Typical homes in Santee are valued around $163,800, and the median resident age is 51.6 years. About 26.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Santee's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 7320.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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. 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 Santee'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 work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Santee, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Santee?
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.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 26.2% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Santee?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 84.4%. 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -18 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.3% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Santee?
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 Conestee (1,175 residents, $60,450 income); Due West (1,185 residents, $52,059 income); City View (1,172 residents, $37,625 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are London, AR (1,179 residents); Gotha, FL (1,179 residents); Hydro, OK (1,179 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Santee?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 7320.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 221% 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
7320.1
Violent rate
1240.7
Property rate
6079.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Santee?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 37.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
4.4×
Home value
$163,800
Household income
$36,856
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 37.7% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Santee, SC
22/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$36,856
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
37.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
1,241 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Santee profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 26.2%
Household income: 3/100 (F) · $36,856
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 37.7%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,241 /100k
Where Santee sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Santee'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 - Santee highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Santee, SC (this city): home $163,800, crime 7,320/100k
Hydro, OK : home $155,000, crime 446/100k
Yamhill, OR : home $414,100, crime 780/100k
Due West, SC : home $178,500, crime 493/100k
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 Santee compare to other US cities?
Here's how Santee stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income6% higher than other cities
Home value31% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety1% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just South Carolina and the picture shifts: Santee ranks #119 of 127 South Carolina cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Santee 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 Santee near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Santee ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Santee only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#324 of 403
20th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#189 of 404
53rd percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#33 of 439
92nd percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#132 of 441
70th 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
6th percentile nationally for median household income · 1st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Santee's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Santee'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 Santee's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$163,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 69% 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
Santee's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,856 of 15,516
More affordable than 24% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,101 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.4×, Santee sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,856 of 15,516 and #9,101 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
$36,856Santee, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Santee, 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 Santee, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)37.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,179
Median Income
$36,856
Median Home Value
$163,800
Median Age
51.6
Poverty Rate
37.7%
Labor force participation
57.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
7320.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1240.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
6079.4
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
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Santee's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
793 residents
2021
782 residents
2022
780 residents
2023
779 residents
2024
777 residents
2025
775 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.4%
Carpool
8.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
5.5%
Other
1.6%
Based on 544 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 Santee. 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 Santee 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 Santee sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Santee 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.