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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-WESTMINSTER-SC · Westminster, SC 2,244 pop · income 7th 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 Westminster
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Westminster on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Homerville · lowest
35,844
Homerville · lowest
35,844 median HH income
27.3% of the leader · rank #1
Arcadia · near
38,388
Arcadia · near
38,388 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #2
Westminster · this city
38,393
Westminster · this city
38,393 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #3
Kite · near
38,393
Kite · near
38,393 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #4
Condon · near
38,393
Condon · near
38,393 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #5
Crestwood · near
38,396
Crestwood · near
38,396 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #6
Riverview · highest
131,158
Riverview · highest
131,158 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 Westminster 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: 2,244.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Westminster - the verdict
Nationally, Westminster sits in the 7th percentile for household income and the 37th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
7th
percentile, household income
35th
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
37th
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: Westminster, SC
2,244 people live in Westminster, South Carolina - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Westminster brings in $38,393 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.6%. Home values in Westminster run a median of $175,600, and the median resident age is 36.0 years. About 21.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 42.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Westminster reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1808.5 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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 Westminster'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to schools and households to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Westminster, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
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.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Westminster?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Watts Mills (2,250 residents, $47,192 income); Edisto (2,261 residents, $46,644 income); Kershaw (2,220 residents, $58,077 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Blackwater, AZ (2,245 residents); Kearny, AZ (2,245 residents); Homerville, GA (2,243 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 Westminster?
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 1808.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 21% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
How far does income reach against housing in Westminster?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.6%, 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. 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.
What does the education layer cover for Westminster?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 21.8% 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.
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 Westminster growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 +129 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.4% 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.
Period change
+5.4%
2025 estimate
2,504
2020 estimate
2,375
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Westminster?
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 80.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
2.8%
Drive alone
80.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 718 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 16.6% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Westminster, SC
35/100
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.
Violent crime D
206 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
21.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$38,393
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Westminster profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Violent crime: 47/100 (D) · 206 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 40/100 (D) · 21.8%
Poverty rate: 20/100 (F) · 16.6%
Household income: 5/100 (F) · $38,393
Where Westminster sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Westminster'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 - Westminster highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Westminster, SC (this city): home $175,600, crime 1,809/100k
Homerville, GA : home $88,500, crime 602/100k
Olivia, MN : home $156,600, crime 705/100k
Ware Shoals, SC : home $63,600, crime 2,819/100k
Estill, SC : home $79,500, crime 5,308/100k
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 Westminster compare to other US cities?
Westminster measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income7% higher than other cities
Home value35% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety37% 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, Westminster ranks #35 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 Westminster 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 Westminster near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Westminster ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Westminster only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#310 of 403
23rd percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#172 of 404
57th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#172 of 439
61st percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#169 of 441
61st 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
7th percentile nationally for median household income · 37th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Westminster's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Westminster'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 Westminster's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$175,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 65% 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
Westminster's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,140 of 15,516
More affordable than 22% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,276 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.6×, Westminster sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,140 of 15,516 and #9,276 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
$38,393Westminster, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Westminster, 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 Westminster, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)42.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,244
Median Income
$38,393
Median Home Value
$175,600
Median Age
36.0
Poverty Rate
16.6%
Labor force participation
42.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1808.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
205.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1603.0
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Westminster's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,375 residents
2021
2,388 residents
2022
2,410 residents
2023
2,448 residents
2024
2,474 residents
2025
2,504 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.4%
Carpool
10.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.0%
Work from Home
2.8%
Other
2.5%
Based on 718 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 Westminster. 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 Westminster 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 Westminster sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Westminster 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.