29456North Charleston, South Carolina

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 29456.

60out of 100
Area Score
Top 49% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 12% of 6,210 published ZIP areas76
Schools3018th of 4,422 published ZIP areas37
GrowthTop 23% of 5,428 published ZIP areas65
Housing affordability3531st of 6,685 published ZIP areas78
ClimateTop 23% of 6,789 published ZIP areas77
Physical resilience5268th of 6,709 published ZIP areas26
Access6549th of 6,791 published ZIP areas50
Economic stabilityTop 24% of 6,742 published ZIP areas73
The quick read

29456 ranks in the top 12% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.8% and median household income of $78,361.

Residential permitting has slowed: 1,004 units authorized over the past twelve months, 34% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
41,214
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$78,361
Top 40% nationally
Density
2,281/sq mi
18.1 sq mi of land
Median age
31.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
North Charleston
South Carolina
Metro area
Charleston-North Charleston, SC
Nearest major airport
MYR
84 mi · Myrtle Beach Intl
Median home value
$270,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 74% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 2.1% over the past year, to 67,056 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,014$78,361Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,862$37,076Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.0%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.5 minTop 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.0%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment67,056Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)8.7%Top 1%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.1%Top 5%June 2026
Labor force69,717Top 44%June 2026
Labor force participation75.0%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,260Bottom 34%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,150Bottom 39%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 36%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 26%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202479k65k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $78,361 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 — Charleston-North Charleston, SC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons11,930$34,090
Fast Food and Counter Workers10,850$28,500
Registered Nurses9,760$92,800
Waiters and Waitresses9,580$19,340
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand8,100$38,090
Cashiers7,960$30,130

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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for North Charleston, SC, the city containing this ZIP code.

29% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
29.1%
Bottom 28% in South Carolina
Reading proficiency
36.8%
Bottom 34% in South Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Ladson ElementaryCharleston 0190714.429%24%
Oakbrook MiddleDorchester 0286114.131%40%
Joseph R. Pye ElementaryDorchester 0277514.149%55%
College Park ElementaryBerkeley 0175014.715%25%
College Park MiddleBerkeley 0166615.517%42%
Oakbrook ElementaryDorchester 0264915.132%37%

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 $1,650 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
25.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,650
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$270,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.45Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.7%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±95016,739Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$104$1,650Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,253$270,100Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.3%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 30%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
65/ 100
Top 23% of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

At 8.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
1,004
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.4
Top 16% nationally
Year over year
−34%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
33.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for North Charleston, SC, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

7 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 39°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 52.5 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHARLESTON INTL AP, 7.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation52.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low39°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing33°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

26 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
EarthquakeModerate
Coastal floodingElevated

Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, lightning, wildfire, inland flooding, cold wave, winter weather, heat wave, tornado, strong wind, hail, landslide, drought.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Charleston County records 6.6 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 13.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.4 per 100,000 residents in Charleston County.

Homicide
6.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
21.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.7
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 Charleston 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 29456 rather than 29456 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 84 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Myrtle Beach IntlMYR84 mi9,503 ft
Savannah/Hilton Head IntlSAV87 mi9,351 ft
Columbia MetroCAE88 mi8,601 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
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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
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

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.

29456 vs North Charleston

How this ZIP area compares with North Charleston as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

29456
North Charleston
Median household income
$78,361
vs
$62,956
Per capita income
$37,076
vs
$36,019
Population density
2,281/sq mi
vs
1,538/sq mi
Median home value
$270,100
vs
$302,200
Median gross rent
$1,650
vs
$1,430
Homeownership rate
61.7%
vs
49.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
24.0%
vs
28.6%
Poverty rate
9.0%
vs
14.4%
Median age
31.9
vs
34.6

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.