Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetSC-WAGENER-SC · Wagener, SC 1,170 pop · income 14th 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 Wagener
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wagener on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bernice · lowest
24,278
Bernice · lowest
24,278 median HH income
29.8% of the leader · rank #1
Waldron · near
45,750
Waldron · near
45,750 median HH income
56.2% of the leader · rank #2
Forest City · near
45,750
Forest City · near
45,750 median HH income
56.2% of the leader · rank #3
Falls City · near
45,750
Falls City · near
45,750 median HH income
56.2% of the leader · rank #4
Port Arthur · near
45,752
Port Arthur · near
45,752 median HH income
56.2% of the leader · rank #5
Wagener · this city
45,753
Wagener · this city
45,753 median HH income
56.2% of the leader · rank #6
Hillburn · highest
81,406
Hillburn · highest
81,406 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 Wagener 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: 1,170.
Wagener ranks in the 14th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
14th
percentile, household income
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: Wagener, SC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,170 residents in Wagener, a small town within South Carolina. Wagener households earn a median of $45,753 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 15.0%. The median resident age is 50.4 years. 19.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 49.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Wagener's yearly average temperature at 62.9°F.
Living costs in South Carolina run below the national norm: the state registers 93.7 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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). 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 Wagener'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 climate and hazard context to population change to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wagener, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Wagener?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 62.9°F. 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.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +52 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.1% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Wagener?
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 58.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wagener?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Branchville (1,169 residents, $40,144 income); City View (1,172 residents, $37,625 income); Conestee (1,175 residents, $60,450 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Conrad, IA (1,170 residents); Bernice, LA (1,170 residents); Hillburn, NY (1,170 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 Wagener?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 19.1% 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+
19.1%
Poverty estimate
15.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Wagener, SC
34/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$45,753
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Wagener profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 32/100 (F) · 19.1%
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 15.0%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $45,753
How does Wagener compare to other US cities?
Where Wagener sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher 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 Wagener 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 Wagener near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wagener ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wagener only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#253 of 403
37th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#201 of 439
53rd percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#208 of 441
52nd 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
14th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$45,753Wagener, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wagener, 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 Wagener, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,170
Median Income
$45,753
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
50.4
Poverty Rate
15.0%
Labor force participation
49.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.1%
Climate
Avg Temperature
62.9°F
Annual Precipitation
N/A
Annual Snowfall
N/A
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
Wagener's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
641 residents
2021
652 residents
2022
664 residents
2023
673 residents
2024
685 residents
2025
693 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
58.4%
Carpool
23.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
7.6%
Work from Home
4.1%
Other
6.0%
Based on 486 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 Wagener. 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 Wagener 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 Wagener sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wagener 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.