Orangeburg, South Carolina
Area Profile
13,253 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Orangeburg, in Orangeburg County.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 13 sourcesEmployment conditions sit below most comparable cities measured: unemployment is 6.1% and the Opportunity signal places Orangeburg in the bottom 14%. The unemployment rate is published for Orangeburg County, SC, which contains Orangeburg, rather than for Orangeburg alone.
Rent takes 47% of renter income here, at or above the threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, while buying strains owner incomes less — the median home is 2.6 times what its owners earn, against a historic benchmark near three.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, earthquake and tornado.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment across Orangeburg County, SC, which contains Orangeburg, is 6.1% — higher than in all but 7% of the 4,226 measured US cities.
Employment across Orangeburg County, SC, which contains Orangeburg, grew 1.4% over the past year, to 33,652 employed residents.
Median household income of $38,635 is lower than in 91% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsOrangeburg County, SC’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $43,888 | 2nd percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftOrangeburg County, SC’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $43,217 | 1st percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$6,9112024 ACS 5-Year | $38,635 | Bottom 9%of 29,223 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$2,5592024 ACS 5-Year | $19,990 | Bottom 9%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate ±8%2024 ACS 5-Year | 32.4% | Bottom 8%of 31,773 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±3.5 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 26.5 min | Top 49%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±5%2024 ACS 5-Year | 26.3% | Top 37%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±6%2024 ACS 5-Year | 71.8% | 33rd percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentOrangeburg County, SC’s figureJuly 2026 | 33,652 | Bottom 38%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)Orangeburg County, SC’s figureJuly 2026 | −0.3% | Bottom 49%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)Orangeburg County, SC’s figureJuly 2026 | +1.4% | Top 12%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceOrangeburg County, SC’s figureJuly 2026 | 35,838 | 38th percentileof 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±7%2024 ACS 5-Year | 67.2% | Bottom 21%of 31,513 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Public transit to work ±0.8%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.8% | 82nd percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)Orangeburg County, SC’s figureJuly 2026 | −0.9% | Top 14%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateOrangeburg County, SC’s figureJuly 2026 | 6.1% | Bottom 7%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 11.6% | 66th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Median household income, successive ACS releases
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Orangeburg County, SC, which contains this city.
There are 15.5 students for every full-time teacher across 10 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orangeburg Wilkinson High | Orangeburg | 992 | 16.5 | — | — |
| Marshall Elementary | Orangeburg | 625 | 16.4 | — | — |
| William J. Clark Middle | Orangeburg | 587 | 13.0 | — | — |
| Orangeburg High School for Health Professions · charter | Limestone Charters Association | 492 | 18.9 | — | — |
| Sheridan Elementary | Orangeburg | 450 | 14.1 | — | — |
| Robert E. Howard Middle | Orangeburg | 396 | 15.8 | — | — |
| Whittaker Elementary | Orangeburg | 325 | 15.5 | — | — |
| Felton Laboratory Charter School · charter | SC Public Charter School District | 279 | 21.5 | 23% | 31% |
| Brookdale Elementary | Orangeburg | 215 | 13.4 | — | — |
| Mellichamp Elementary | Orangeburg | 144 | 10.3 | — | — |
| The Orangeburg Career & Technology Center | Orangeburg 81 | 0 | — | — | — |
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against South Carolina’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the non-metropolitan parts of South Carolina is up 59% over five years, and up 5.1% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $1,152 a year in real estate taxes, about 0.70% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $910, close to the $848 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $910 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $36,400 a year, about 94% of the median household income here of $38,635.
The typical renter household here spends 47% of its income on rent, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $848 a month.
A median home at $163,500 costs 2.6 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $63,464, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
The figures above are measured against Orangeburg’s median household income of $38,635, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price change (1 year)the non-metropolitan parts of South Carolina’s figure2026 Q2 | +5.1% | 79th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the non-metropolitan parts of South Carolina’s figure2026 Q2 | +58.5% | 94th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the non-metropolitan parts of South Carolina’s figure2026 Q2 | +108.1% | 74th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.52024 ACS 5-Year | 2.6 | Bottom 47%of 26,815 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±6%2024 ACS 5-Year | 44.6% | 6th percentileof 31,717 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±5162024 ACS 5-Year | 5,950 | 90th percentileof 32,177 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $750 | Top 4%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,091 | Top 1%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $910 | Top 2%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$612024 ACS 5-Year | $848 | Top 35%of 23,120 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$13,3272024 ACS 5-Year | $163,500 | 43rd percentileof 29,111 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$1822024 ACS 5-Year | $1,152 | 29th percentileof 26,440 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$11,3532024 ACS 5-Year | $63,464 | Bottom 28%of 27,548 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.13%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.70% | 29th percentileof 20,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±15%2024 ACS 5-Year | 46.6% | Bottom 6%of 22,950 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±652024 ACS 5-Year | 82 | 87th percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 1.4% | 65th percentileof 31,895 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 21.1% | 89th percentileof 31,769 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±2502024 ACS 5-Year | 1,337 | 96th percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
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 2% since 2020, reaching 13,378 in 2024.
61% of the 33 units permitted over the past twelve months are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.
Federal tax returns show Orangeburg County, which contains Orangeburg, lost about 0.5% of its residents through moves within the US in the most recent year, counting those who arrived against those who left. Households that moved in reported an average income of $43,888, close to the $43,217 of households that moved out.
At 2.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- Dorchester County, SC 288 people · 9.6% of arrivals
- Berkeley County, SC 284 people · 9.5% of arrivals
- Richland County, SC 268 people · 8.9% of arrivals
- Lexington County, SC 235 people · 7.8% of arrivals
- Charleston County, SC 162 people · 5.4% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Lexington County, SC 358 people · 11% of departures
- Richland County, SC 355 people · 11% of departures
- Dorchester County, SC 265 people · 8.1% of departures
- Berkeley County, SC 234 people · 7.1% of departures
- Calhoun County, SC 186 people · 5.7% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. This is the figure for Orangeburg County, SC. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
Housing units permitted per year
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.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 43.7" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 37°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 92°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 7 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 35°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, earthquake and inland flooding, with hurricane alone responsible for 34% of it. Inland flooding is independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large that hazard is.
Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, heat wave, wildfire, hail, inland flooding, drought, cold wave, winter weather, tsunami, volcanic activity, coastal flooding, avalanche.
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.
Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.
Orangeburg's police department reported 1,132 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 4,251.
Orangeburg County records 22.9 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 33.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 26.6 per 100,000 residents in Orangeburg County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Offenses are reported to the FBI by Orangeburg’s own police department and shown only where it reported every month of the year; a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime is what police recorded, which is not the same as what happened. Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe the county around Orangeburg (Orangeburg County) rather than Orangeburg itself. Neither is part of the Area Score. How to read crime rates and death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- School results
- Too few schools here reported proficiency for a figure to be weighted honestly. AreaProfile requires at least two reporting schools and 200 enrolled students behind a place-level rate, because below that a single small school decides the number.
- Cost of living
- Price parities are published for metropolitan areas, and this place lies outside one.
- Air quality
- The EPA publishes an air-quality index only where a monitor sits. There is none in this county, and a modeled value would be a different kind of number from the measured ones everywhere else on this page.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. Cost of living is published where the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures it, though not for this place. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Columbia Metro at 34 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 79.6% | Bottom 18%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 34 mi | Bottom 24%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 4 | Bottom 38%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±6%2024 ACS 5-Year | 17.9% | Bottom 16%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia Metro | CAE | 34 mi | 8,601 ft |
| Charleston AFB/Intl | CHS | 63 mi | 9,001 ft |
| Augusta Rgnl At Bush Fld | AGS | 64 mi | 8,001 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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Similar places
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Moving to Orangeburg from somewhere else?
You get the difference in prices, rent and weather, and the income that would keep pace.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Safety | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency | 2025 calendar year |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 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 every source with how often each updates.