Greenville, South Carolina

Area Profile

72,935 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Greenville, in Greenville County.

70out of 100
Area Score
Top 18% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 6% of 3,904 published cities82
SchoolsTop 27% of 2,668 published cities69
GrowthTop 21% of 2,973 published cities67
Housing affordability3462nd of 4,223 published cities58
Climate2199th of 4,223 published cities70
Physical resilienceTop 44% of 4,182 published cities64
AccessTop 19% of 4,226 published cities98
Economic stability2459th of 4,226 published cities56
The quick read

Greenville ranks in the top 6% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.7% and median household income of $71,472.

Residential permitting has slowed: 642 units authorized over the past twelve months, 44% below the prior year.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 6.8 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 22% of it.

At a glance

Population
72,935
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$71,472
Top 44% nationally
Density
2,407/sq mi
30.3 sq mi of land
Median age
34.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Greenville County
South Carolina
Metro area
Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC
Nearest major airport
GYH
5 mi · Donaldson Fld
Median home value
$487,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 74% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 3.9% over the past year, to 43,161 employed residents.

56% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 91% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,965$71,472Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,092$58,929Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.0%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.5 minBottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher55.5%Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment43,161Bottom 47%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)6.9%Top 3%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)3.9%Top 1%June 2026
Labor force44,841Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force participation69.2%Top 20%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)-0.2%Bottom 39%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.02.3
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.7% 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
202120222023202471k60k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $71,472 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.

48% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 54% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
24
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
47.9%
Top 30% in South Carolina
Reading proficiency
53.5%
Top 20% in South Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
J. L. Mann High AcademyGreenville 012,01318.6
Wade Hampton HighGreenville 011,79018.5
Greenville Senior High AcademyGreenville 011,73017.7
Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher MiddleGreenville 0193015.837%57%
Sara Collins ElementaryGreenville 0191715.555%55%
Greenbrier ElementaryGreenville 0187615.948%53%
Beck International AcademyGreenville 0184816.037%52%
League AcademyGreenville 0178716.147%57%
Sterling SchoolGreenville 0174915.073%76%
Greenville Middle AcademyGreenville 0173615.047%62%
East North Street AcademyGreenville 0166813.445%37%
Sevier MiddleGreenville 0164416.142%52%

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 $1,312 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.8 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
22.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,312
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$487,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.82Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate41.1%Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±78239,373Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$43$1,312Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$22,040$487,500Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.0%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.9%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
67/ 100
Top 21% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 4% since 2020, reaching 74,371 in 2024.

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

At 8.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
642
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.8
Top 16% nationally
Year over year
−44%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
58.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202474k71k
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
202020222023202420251k276
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−9%).

Weather & climate

5 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 35°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 47.0 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 48, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GREENVILLE DWTN AP, 1.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index64.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation47.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low35°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index48.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
48
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
64
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

64 / 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 waveModerate
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneModerate
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate

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

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.

Greenville County records 5.0 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 15.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.8 per 100,000 residents in Greenville County.

Homicide
5.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.8
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 Greenville 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 Greenville rather than Greenville 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 5 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Donaldson FldGYH5 mi8,000 ft
Asheville RgnlAVL43 mi8,002 ft
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT84 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
70
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Other cities in Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
GreerGreenville County41,53676vs Greenville
AndersonAnderson County30,05168vs Greenville
MauldinGreenville County27,05578vs Greenville
SimpsonvilleGreenville County26,14479vs Greenville
EasleyPickens County24,84170vs Greenville
TaylorsGreenville County24,505vs Greenville
Wade HamptonGreenville County20,898vs Greenville
Five ForksGreenville County18,656vs Greenville
ClemsonPickens County18,07265vs Greenville
BereaGreenville County16,862vs Greenville
GanttGreenville County15,401vs Greenville
ParkerGreenville County12,898vs Greenville

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
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.

ZIP codes in Greenville

4 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2960746,209$74,50372
2960932,292$65,34271
2960113,790$76,13668
296141,848