This SC county is the ‘richest’ in the state, study says. Just how wealthy is it?
If you’re looking to live in the “richest” area in South Carolina, this county is the place to be, a study found.
A study done by 24/7 Wall St. used data from the U.S. Census Bureau to find the “richest” county in each state based on median household income and a number of other factors, according to a release.
In South Carolina it isn’t Richland, the county home to the state capital, or Greenville, the most populous county, that’s the richest.
Instead, coastal Beaufort County is where the money is, the study found.
The county, home to the popular tourist destination Hilton Head Island, has a median household income of $63,110, according to the study, which is higher than the state’s median household income of $51,015.
Additionally, about 40 percent of adults in the county have a bachelor’s degree, compared with about 27 percent statewide, according to the study.
But the county isn’t just full of vacationers or wealthy residents.
It also has a poverty rate of 11.1 percent and an unemployment rate of 1.9 percent. Those are still lower than the state, which has an overall poverty rate of 16 percent and an unemployment rate of 2.6 percent.
Researchers used the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey to find data on income and education and used October 2019 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find unemployment rates, according to the study. Only counties with income estimates available were examined.
North Myrtle Beach may be considered the safest city in the state, a study found, and Charleston and Columbia may be among the best cities in the country for jobs, another study found.
But when it comes to wealth, Beaufort takes the prize.
