Orangeburg County, SC

County Profile

83,253 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Orangeburg 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.

47out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 6% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1144th of 1,255 counties measured30
Schools845th of 973 counties measured21
Growth907th of 1,226 counties measured37
Housing affordability705th of 1,255 counties measured91
ClimateTop 17% of 1,254 counties measured77
Physical resilience967th of 1,255 counties measured37
Access724th of 1,255 counties measured78
Economic stability1208th of 1,255 counties measured20
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 6.0% and the Opportunity signal places Orangeburg County in the bottom 9%.

In the public schools here, 16% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.7 students for every teacher.

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

At a glance

Population
83,253
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$45,675
Bottom 9% nationally
Density
75/sq mi
1106.4 sq mi of land
Median age
40.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Orangeburg County
South Carolina
Metro area
Orangeburg, SC
Nearest major airport
CAE
39 mi · Columbia Metro
Median home value
$115,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.0% is lower than 6% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.9% over the past year, to 33,196 employed residents.

Median household income of $45,675 is below 91% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,691$45,675Bottom 9%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,198$27,036Bottom 13%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate22.4%Top 11%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute32.3 minTop 14%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.4%Bottom 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment33,196Bottom 43%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.3%Bottom 29%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.9%Top 16%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force35,305Bottom 43%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation53.4%Bottom 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 16%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate6.0%Top 6%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.83.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 6.0% 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
202120222023202446k38k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $45,675 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.

16% of students met the state standard in mathematics, across the schools here that reported results.

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

Public schools
30
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
16.1%
Bottom 5% in South Carolina
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Orangeburg Wilkinson HighOrangeburg99216.5
Lake Marion High SchoolOrangeburg69217.3
Edisto PrimaryOrangeburg63515.1
Marshall ElementaryOrangeburg62516.4
Edisto HighOrangeburg61412.8
William J. Clark MiddleOrangeburg58713.010%
Orangeburg High School for Health Professions · charterLimestone Charters Association49218.9
Sheridan ElementaryOrangeburg45014.112%
Carver Edisto MiddleOrangeburg43912.915%
Edisto ElementaryOrangeburg41915.516%
Robert E. Howard MiddleOrangeburg39615.8
Holly Hill ElementaryOrangeburg35612.730%

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 $841 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.5 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
22.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$841
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$115,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.54Bottom 30%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.0%Bottom 20%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5041,527Top 20%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$36$841Bottom 44%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,571$115,800Bottom 15%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.1%Top 11%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate20.3%Top 26%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
37/ 100
Ranks 907 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 fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 83,129 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 19% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
104
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.2
Bottom 20% nationally
Year over year
+16%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
19.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202484k83k
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
20222023202420259183
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2022 (−2%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 37°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.7 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ORANGEBURG MUNI AP, 3.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation43.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low37°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing35°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

37 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeModerate
HurricaneElevated
Ice stormModerate
LightningModerate
TornadoModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, heat wave, wildfire, hail, inland flooding, drought, cold wave, 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.

Orangeburg County records 24.1 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 38.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 25.4 per 100,000 residents in Orangeburg County.

Homicide
24.1
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
38.6
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
25.4
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
20.5
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 Orangeburg 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 Orangeburg County rather than Orangeburg 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 and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 39 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Columbia MetroCAE39 mi8,601 ft
Augusta Rgnl At Bush FldAGS67 mi8,001 ft
Savannah/Hilton Head IntlSAV93 mi9,351 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
47
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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 Orangeburg County, SC