Newberry County, SC

County Profile

38,435 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Newberry 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.

62out of 100
Area Score
Top 49% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity716th of 1,255 counties measured52
Schools738th of 973 counties measured30
GrowthTop 28% of 1,226 counties measured62
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties measured100
ClimateTop 41% of 1,254 counties measured71
Physical resilienceTop 44% of 1,255 counties measured66
AccessTop 48% of 1,255 counties measured82
Economic stability1103rd of 1,255 counties measured33
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.6% and median household income $61,780, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 31% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.0 students for every teacher.

175 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 6% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
38,435
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,780
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
61/sq mi
630.3 sq mi of land
Median age
41.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Newberry County
South Carolina
Metro area
Newberry, SC
Nearest major airport
CAE
37 mi · Columbia Metro
Median home value
$173,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 34% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.8% over the past year, to 18,319 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,811$61,780Bottom 41%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,158$32,295Bottom 36%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$50,521Bottom 25%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate17.4%Top 27%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.4 minTop 27%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.1%Top 46%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment18,319Bottom 19%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.4%Top 36%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.8%Top 17%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force19,196Bottom 20%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation56.6%Bottom 39%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 34%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.02.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.6% 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
202120222023202462k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,780 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.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
14
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.4%
Bottom 21% in South Carolina
Reading proficiency
32.9%
Bottom 11% in South Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Newberry HighNewberry 0183716.1
Mid-Carolina HighNewberry 0168115.5
Newberry MiddleNewberry 0162912.312%22%
Mid-Carolina MiddleNewberry 0155312.642%37%
Boundary St. ElementaryNewberry 0142911.328%32%
Newberry ElementaryNewberry 0142111.415%15%
Gallman ElementaryNewberry 0140810.718%18%
Prosperity-Rikard ElementaryNewberry 0138614.345%44%
Little Mountain ElementaryNewberry 0136712.751%53%
Pomaria-Garmany ElementaryNewberry 0133912.137%31%
Whitmire Community School (High)Newberry 0126412.050%50%
Whitmire Community School (Elementary)Newberry 0125013.247%47%

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 $872 takes 17% 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
16.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$872
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$173,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.81Bottom 43%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.1%Bottom 42%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3918,558Top 38%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$53$872Top 50%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,657$173,300Bottom 46%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.9%Bottom 49%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate17.4%Top 35%of 3,2222024 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
62/ 100
Top 28% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 4% since 2020, reaching 39,203 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 3% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 4.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
175
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.6
Top 33% nationally
Year over year
+6%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
3.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202439k38k
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
2022202320242025193155
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−17%).

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 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.6 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NEWBERRY, 1.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation46.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°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

66 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneElevated
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, cold wave, inland flooding, heat wave, hail, wildfire, drought, strong wind, landslide, 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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Newberry County records 7.0 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 25.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.7 per 100,000 residents in Newberry County.

Homicide
7.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
25.8
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
21.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
28.3
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 Newberry 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 Newberry County rather than Newberry 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 37 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Columbia MetroCAE37 mi8,601 ft
Donaldson FldGYH55 mi8,000 ft
Augusta Rgnl At Bush FldAGS67 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
62
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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)
IncomeU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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 Newberry County, SC