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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-WILLIAMSTON-SC · Williamston, SC 4,116 pop · income 39th 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 Williamston
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Williamston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Saxon · lowest
28,394
Saxon · lowest
28,394 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #1
Williamston · this city
62,500
Williamston · this city
62,500 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #2
Industry · near
62,500
Industry · near
62,500 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #3
Buncombe · near
62,500
Buncombe · near
62,500 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #4
Colchester · near
62,500
Colchester · near
62,500 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #5
Shipman · near
62,500
Shipman · near
62,500 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #6
Reiffton · highest
128,309
Reiffton · highest
128,309 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 Williamston 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: 4,116.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Williamston - the verdict
Nationally, Williamston sits in the 39th percentile for household income and the 18th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
39th
percentile, household income
29th
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
18th
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: Williamston, SC
South Carolina's Williamston is a small town, with 4,116 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $62,500 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.1%. Home values in Williamston run a median of $156,700, and the median resident age is 38.2 years. About 17.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Williamston's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2783.6 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: 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. Monthly utility costs average around $224 across South Carolina, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Williamston workers runs 26.2 minutes, with 82.6% driving alone and 5.4% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 70.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Williamston'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility to housing and income to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Williamston, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
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. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Williamston?
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 2783.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 22% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Williamston?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Walhalla (4,121 residents, $42,696 income); Saxon (4,139 residents, $28,394 income); Newport (4,142 residents, $107,143 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Friona, TX (4,116 residents); North El Monte, CA (4,115 residents); Nashville, AR (4,114 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.
Is Williamston 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 +278 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.8% 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 Williamston?
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 82.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.2 minutes.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Williamston?
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 10.1%, 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.
Household income
$62,500
Home value
$156,700
Value / income
2.5×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the education layer cover for Williamston?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 17.2% 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.
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
4
Bachelor's degree+
17.2%
Poverty estimate
10.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 10.1% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.7 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
F
City profile score · Williamston, SC
36/100
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.
Poverty rate F
10.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$62,500
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
678 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Williamston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Poverty rate: 39/100 (F) · 10.1%
Household income: 38/100 (F) · $62,500
Bachelor's+ share: 26/100 (F) · 17.2%
Violent crime: 6/100 (F) · 678 /100k
Where Williamston sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Williamston'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 - Williamston highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Williamston, SC (this city): home $156,700, crime 2,784/100k
Friona, TX : home $93,400, crime 75/100k
Nashville, AR : home $138,400, crime 2,643/100k
Monongahela, PA : home $119,300, crime 574/100k
Walhalla, SC : home $176,500, crime 1,038/100k
Duncan, SC : home $182,500, crime 2,171/100k
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 Williamston compare to other US cities?
Williamston measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income39% higher than other cities
Home value29% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety18% 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, Williamston ranks #56 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 Williamston 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 Williamston near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Williamston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Williamston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#125 of 403
69th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#203 of 404
50th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#255 of 439
41st percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#244 of 441
44th 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
39th percentile nationally for median household income · 18th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Williamston's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Williamston'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 Williamston's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$156,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 71% 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
Williamston's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,026 of 15,516
More affordable than 74% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,624 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Williamston sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,026 of 15,516 and #3,624 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
$62,500Williamston, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Williamston, 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 Williamston, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,116
Median Income
$62,500
Median Home Value
$156,700
Median Age
38.2
Poverty Rate
10.1%
Labor force participation
59.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2783.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
678.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2105.3
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Williamston's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,060 residents
2021
4,112 residents
2022
4,166 residents
2023
4,241 residents
2024
4,293 residents
2025
4,338 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.2 minutes
Drive Alone
82.6%
Carpool
9.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.8%
Work from Home
5.4%
Based on 1,996 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 Williamston. 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 Williamston 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 Williamston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Williamston 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.