Anderson, South Carolina

Area Profile

30,051 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Anderson, in Anderson County.

68out of 100
Area Score
Top 23% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 37% of 3,904 published cities62
SchoolsTop 24% of 2,668 published cities72
GrowthTop 5% of 2,973 published cities80
Housing affordability3053rd of 4,223 published cities66
ClimateTop 37% of 4,223 published cities73
Physical resilienceTop 45% of 4,182 published cities64
Access2385th of 4,226 published cities90
Economic stability3565th of 4,226 published cities38
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $46,933, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 52% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.0 students for every teacher.

281 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 9% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
30,051
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$46,933
Bottom 18% nationally
Density
1,877/sq mi
16.0 sq mi of land
Median age
32.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Anderson County
South Carolina
Metro area
Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC
Nearest major airport
GYH
22 mi · Donaldson Fld
Median home value
$218,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 3.9% over the past year, to 14,556 employed residents.

Median household income of $46,933 is below 82% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,427$46,933Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,197$29,386Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.0%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.4 minBottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.3%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,556Bottom 13%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)7.3%Top 2%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)3.9%Top 1%June 2026
Labor force15,218Bottom 13%June 2026
Labor force participation60.5%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$59,260Bottom 13%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,580Bottom 12%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.82.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.4% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202447k37k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $46,933 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers12,280$27,850
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand11,960$38,520
Retail Salespersons11,830$30,840
Cashiers10,250$29,080
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators9,860$40,840
Registered Nurses9,730$81,400

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

52% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 52% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
52.3%
Top 22% in South Carolina
Reading proficiency
51.6%
Top 29% in South Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
T. L. Hanna HighAnderson 051,89918.3
Glenview MiddleAnderson 0567713.037%42%
Midway ElementaryAnderson 0567513.864%57%
Concord ElementaryAnderson 0561515.870%64%
McCants MiddleAnderson 0557214.752%57%
Nevitt Forest ElementaryAnderson 0553014.726%22%
North Pointe ElementaryAnderson 0550415.865%62%
Flat Rock ElementaryAnderson 0342914.348%48%
Calhoun Academy of the ArtsAnderson 0542413.341%37%
Southwood Academy for the ArtsAnderson 0540912.067%77%
Homeland Park PrimaryAnderson 0539714.2
South Carolina Preparatory Academy · charterLimestone Charters Association39139.1

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against South Carolina’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $975 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
24.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$975
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$218,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.65Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate51.1%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±49713,969Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$58$975Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,472$218,200Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.9%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.9%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
80/ 100
Top 5% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 consecutive years, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 5% since 2020, reaching 30,937 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 9.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
281
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.4
Top 15% nationally
Year over year
+9%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202431k29k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025274124
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+121%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 33°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ANDERSON CO AP, 4.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation46.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low33°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

64 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, cold wave and tornado.

Cold waveElevated
Ice stormModerate
LightningModerate
TornadoModerate
Inland floodingModerate
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, hail, heat wave, drought, wildfire, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Anderson County records 6.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 25.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 27.7 per 100,000 residents in Anderson County.

Homicide
6.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
25.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
27.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
25.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Anderson County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Anderson rather than Anderson itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 22 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Donaldson FldGYH22 mi8,000 ft
Asheville RgnlAVL63 mi8,002 ft
Augusta Rgnl At Bush FldAGS89 mi8,001 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
68
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Other cities in Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
GreenvilleGreenville County72,93570vs Anderson
GreerGreenville County41,53676vs Anderson
MauldinGreenville County27,05578vs Anderson
SimpsonvilleGreenville County26,14479vs Anderson
EasleyPickens County24,84170vs Anderson
TaylorsGreenville County24,505vs Anderson
Wade HamptonGreenville County20,898vs Anderson
Five ForksGreenville County18,656vs Anderson
ClemsonPickens County18,07265vs Anderson
BereaGreenville County16,862vs Anderson
GanttGreenville County15,401vs Anderson
ParkerGreenville County12,898vs Anderson

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Anderson

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2962146,482$74,25674
2962413,498$30,54968