Cherokee County, SC

County Profile

56,647 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cherokee County, SC.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 18% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1174th of 1,255 counties27
Schools733rd of 973 counties30
GrowthTop 35% of 1,226 counties58
Housing affordabilityTop 48% of 1,255 counties94
ClimateTop 33% of 1,254 counties72
Physical resilience804th of 1,255 counties50
Access677th of 1,255 counties80
Economic stability1052nd of 1,255 counties37
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.6% and the Opportunity signal places Cherokee County in the bottom 6%.

In the public schools here, 32% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.2 students for every teacher.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 269 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 30% on the prior year.

At a glance

Population
56,647
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$50,288
Bottom 14% nationally
Density
144/sq mi
393.0 sq mi of land
Median age
40.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cherokee County
South Carolina
Metro area
Gaffney, SC
Nearest major airport
CLT
39 mi · Charlotte/Douglas Intl
Median home value
$142,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.6% is lower than 10% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment held steady over the past year, at 22,405 employed residents.

Median household income of $50,288 is below 86% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,291$50,288Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,263$27,406Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.4%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.0 minTop 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.4%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,405Bottom 28%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.3%Bottom 19%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.0%Top 32%June 2026
Labor force23,734Bottom 28%June 2026
Labor force participation56.4%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 21%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.6%Top 10%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.33.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.6% 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
202120222023202450k41k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $50,288 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.

32% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 34% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
17
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.9%
Bottom 26% in South Carolina
Reading proficiency
34.2%
Bottom 17% in South Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Gaffney HighCherokee 011,82717.7
Gaffney MiddleCherokee 0185112.533%40%
Cherokee Charter Academy · charterCharter Institute at Erskine63315.136%
B. D. Lee ElementaryCherokee 0160315.516%15%
Grassy Pond ElementaryCherokee 0151915.751%46%
Blacksburg HighCherokee 0148213.4
Limestone-Central ElementaryCherokee 0143613.628%31%
Northwest ElementaryCherokee 0142314.147%47%
Luther L. Vaughan ElementaryCherokee 0139912.19%18%
John E. Ewing MiddleCherokee 0138012.322%32%
Blacksburg MiddleCherokee 0136311.727%32%
Blacksburg PrimaryCherokee 0136315.8

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 $869 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
20.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$869
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$142,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.82Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.8%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4625,150Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$39$869Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,173$142,000Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.7%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.3%Bottom 40%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
58/ 100
Top 35% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 3% since 2020, reaching 57,770 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 12% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 4.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
269
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.7
Top 32% nationally
Year over year
+30%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
11.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202458k56k
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
2022202320242025270187
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+5%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 33°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.3 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GASTONIA MUNI AP, 27.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation43.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low33°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing38°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

50 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormElevated
Cold waveHigh
LightningModerate
EarthquakeElevated
Inland floodingModerate
HurricaneModerate
LandslideModerate
HailModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Cherokee County records 6.9 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 17.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 22.9 per 100,000 residents in Cherokee County.

Homicide
6.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.6
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
22.9
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
22.9
per 100,000 residents

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 Cherokee 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 Cherokee County rather than Cherokee County 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 39 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT39 mi10,000 ft
Donaldson FldGYH48 mi8,000 ft
Asheville RgnlAVL59 mi8,002 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
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
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

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.

Cities in Cherokee County, SC