29579Carolina Forest, South Carolina

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 29579.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
SchoolsTop 17% of 4,422 published ZIP areas77
Housing affordability4389th of 6,685 published ZIP areas69
ClimateTop 10% of 6,789 published ZIP areas85
Physical resilience5663rd of 6,709 published ZIP areas21
AccessTop 43% of 6,791 published ZIP areas95
Economic stability4926th of 6,742 published ZIP areas46
The quick read

Rent takes 24% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.4 times that income.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, earthquake and coastal flooding.

A major airport is 6 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
56,915
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$79,644
Top 38% nationally
Density
1,074/sq mi
53.0 sq mi of land
Median age
42.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Carolina Forest
South Carolina
Metro area
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC
Nearest major airport
MYR
6 mi · Myrtle Beach Intl
Median home value
$353,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

37% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,799$79,644Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,576$40,354Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.2%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.7 minBottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher37.1%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation60.1%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$49,710Bottom 1%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$37,930Bottom 1%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202480k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $79,644 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 — Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons7,780$29,320
Waiters and Waitresses6,390$17,350
Fast Food and Counter Workers5,200$27,600
Cashiers4,710$27,850
Cooks, Restaurant3,420$35,190
Registered Nurses3,150$80,640

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.

57% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 59% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
57.0%
Top 15% in South Carolina
Reading proficiency
59.1%
Top 12% in South Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Carolina Forest HighHorry 013,17619.4
River Oaks ElementaryHorry 011,42615.557%54%
Carolina Forest ElementaryHorry 011,33615.455%54%
Ten Oaks MiddleHorry 011,26415.857%57%
Ocean Bay ElementaryHorry 011,18117.164%67%
Forestbrook ElementaryHorry 0193015.560%62%
Ocean Bay MiddleHorry 0180116.752%67%
Bridgewater Academy Charter · charterHorry 011256.921%50%
Academy For Arts/Science/TechnologyHorry 010

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 $1,617 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
24.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,617
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$353,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.44Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.6%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±78025,682Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$69$1,617Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,724$353,600Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.4%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.7%Top 41%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 37°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 48.5 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station N MYRTLE BCH AP, 11.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index55.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation48.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low37°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index40.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing34°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
40
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
55
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

21 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, earthquake and coastal flooding.

HurricaneHigh
EarthquakeElevated
LightningModerate
Coastal floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, winter weather, heat wave, ice storm, inland flooding, wildfire, cold wave, strong wind, drought, hail, landslide.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Horry County records 5.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 19.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 28.2 per 100,000 residents in Horry County.

Homicide
5.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
28.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.9
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 Horry 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 29579 rather than 29579 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 6 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Myrtle Beach IntlMYR6 mi9,503 ft
Wilmington IntlILM68 mi8,016 ft
Columbia MetroCAE127 mi8,601 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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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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

29579 vs Carolina Forest

How this ZIP area compares with Carolina Forest as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

29579
Carolina Forest
Median household income
$79,644
vs
$74,436
Per capita income
$40,354
vs
$40,174
Population density
1,074/sq mi
vs
1,562/sq mi
Median home value
$353,600
vs
$336,800
Median gross rent
$1,617
vs
$1,668
Homeownership rate
75.6%
vs
69.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
37.1%
vs
35.5%
Poverty rate
11.2%
vs
13.0%
Median age
42.2
vs
40.3

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.