Clemson, South Carolina

Area Profile

18,072 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Clemson, in Pickens County.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 32% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 28% of 3,904 published cities67
GrowthTop 9% of 2,973 published cities76
Housing affordability3907th of 4,223 published cities46
ClimateTop 18% of 4,223 published cities79
Physical resilienceTop 46% of 4,182 published cities63
Access2997th of 4,226 published cities85
Economic stability4022nd of 4,226 published cities27
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $49,520, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

267 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 14% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 8.0 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 24% of it.

At a glance

Population
18,072
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$49,520
Bottom 22% nationally
Density
2,275/sq mi
7.9 sq mi of land
Median age
24.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Pickens County
South Carolina
Metro area
Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC
Nearest major airport
GYH
25 mi · Donaldson Fld
Median home value
$398,400
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 66,550 employed residents.

59% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 93% of measured US cities.

Median household income of $49,520 is below 78% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,042$49,520Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,068$37,246Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate36.0%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.3 minBottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher59.4%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment66,550Top 45%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)6.6%Top 3%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)3.9%Top 1%June 2026
Labor force69,593Top 45%June 2026
Labor force participation56.0%Bottom 35%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
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202450k48k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $49,520 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Pickens County, SC, which contains this city.

There are 14.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
1
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
2019-20 school year
Reading proficiency
2019-20 school year
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Clemson ElementaryPickens 0179414.775%75%

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 $1,007 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 8.0 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
24.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
8.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,007
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$398,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income8.05Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate34.3%Bottom 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4108,738Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$70$1,007Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$35,647$398,400Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.4%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.0%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
76/ 100
Top 9% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 18,610 in 2024.

85% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 14.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
267
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
14.8
Top 6% nationally
Year over year
+14%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
85.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202419k18k
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
2020202220232024202539448
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−75%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 34°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 49.0 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CLEMSON OCONEE CO AP, 4.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation49.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low34°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

63 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormElevated
LightningModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Cold waveElevated
EarthquakeHigh
LandslideModerate
HurricaneModerate

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

Pickens County records 3.1 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 11.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.7 per 100,000 residents in Pickens County.

Homicide
3.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.5
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 Pickens 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 Clemson rather than Clemson 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 25 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Donaldson FldGYH25 mi8,000 ft
Asheville RgnlAVL54 mi8,002 ft
Mc Ghee TysonTYS103 mi10,000 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
65
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Other cities in Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
GreenvilleGreenville County72,93570vs Clemson
GreerGreenville County41,53676vs Clemson
AndersonAnderson County30,05168vs Clemson
MauldinGreenville County27,05578vs Clemson
SimpsonvilleGreenville County26,14479vs Clemson
EasleyPickens County24,84170vs Clemson
TaylorsGreenville County24,505vs Clemson
Wade HamptonGreenville County20,898vs Clemson
Five ForksGreenville County18,656vs Clemson
BereaGreenville County16,862vs Clemson
GanttGreenville County15,401vs Clemson
ParkerGreenville County12,898vs Clemson

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
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

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 Clemson

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2963116,849$48,80065