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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-WILLISTON-SC · Williston, SC 2,884 pop · income 5th 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 Williston
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Williston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mamou · lowest
19,841
Mamou · lowest
19,841 median HH income
7.9% of the leader · rank #1
Collins · near
35,946
Collins · near
35,946 median HH income
14.4% of the leader · rank #2
Spring City · near
35,957
Spring City · near
35,957 median HH income
14.4% of the leader · rank #3
Byesville · near
35,959
Byesville · near
35,959 median HH income
14.4% of the leader · rank #4
Williston · this city
35,968
Williston · this city
35,968 median HH income
14.4% of the leader · rank #5
McKenzie · near
35,988
McKenzie · near
35,988 median HH income
14.4% of the leader · rank #6
Chevy Chase · highest
250,001
Chevy Chase · highest
250,001 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 Williston 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: 2,884.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Williston - the verdict
Nationally, Williston sits in the 5th percentile for household income and the 5th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
5th
percentile, household income
11th
percentile, home value
46th
percentile, median rent
5th
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: Williston, SC
South Carolina's Williston is a small town, with 2,884 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Williston brings in $35,968 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 28.8%. Typical homes in Williston are valued around $104,000, and the median resident age is 45.6 years. 16.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 56.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Williston's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4489.7 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. 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). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.7 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Williston'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 population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Williston, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Williston growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +8 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Williston?
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Arkwright (2,910 residents, $51,458 income); Dalzell (2,949 residents, $52,723 income); Bishopville (2,958 residents, $44,015 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are San Andreas, CA (2,884 residents); Polk City, FL (2,884 residents); Mamou, LA (2,884 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 Williston?
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 4489.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 97% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
How far does income reach against housing in Williston?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 28.8%, 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.
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 Williston?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 16.7% 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+
16.7%
Poverty estimate
28.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Williston?
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 82.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
11.8%
Work from home
1.4%
Drive alone
82.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,259 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 28.8% (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 · Williston, SC
21/100
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 F
16.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
561 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$35,968
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
28.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Williston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 25/100 (F) · 16.7%
Violent crime: 12/100 (F) · 561 /100k
Household income: 1/100 (F) · $35,968
Poverty rate: 1/100 (F) · 28.8%
Where Williston sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Williston'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 - Williston highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Williston, SC (this city): home $104,000, crime 4,490/100k
Woodville, TX : home $188,200, crime 749/100k
Bishopville, SC : home $105,400, crime 5,179/100k
Bamberg, SC : home $129,500, crime 8,010/100k
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 Williston compare to other US cities?
Williston measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income5% higher than other cities
Home value11% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% pricier than other cities
Safety5% 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, Williston ranks #88 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 Williston 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 Williston near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Williston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Williston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#332 of 403
18th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#300 of 404
26th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#63 of 439
86th percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#256 of 441
42nd 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
5th percentile nationally for median household income · 5th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Williston's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Williston'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 Williston's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$104,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 89% 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
Williston's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,070 of 15,516
More affordable than 61% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,212 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Williston sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,070 of 15,516 and #5,212 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
$35,968Williston, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Williston, 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 Williston, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)28.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,884
Median Income
$35,968
Median Home Value
$104,000
Median Age
45.6
Poverty Rate
28.8%
Labor force participation
56.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4489.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
561.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3928.4
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Williston's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,890 residents
2021
2,892 residents
2022
2,869 residents
2023
2,872 residents
2024
2,881 residents
2025
2,898 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.4%
Carpool
2.2%
Public Transit
11.8%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
1.4%
Other
1.3%
Based on 1,259 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 Williston. 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 Williston 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 Williston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Williston 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.