Photo: The original uploader was Festiva76 at English Wikipedia. · Public domainAt 5.4%, unemployment in Aiken is higher than in 67% of U.S. towns
Working residents average 24 minutes each way (South Carolina 26, U.S. 26). The two grades for Aiken are C+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in four work in Aiken; the top destination outside it is Augusta (7%, 23 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Aiken stands out on work
Aiken draws workers from far and wide
The 19,491 jobs in Aiken are filled from a wide area. Aiken’s own residents hold 15% and the ten next-biggest home towns 14%; the other 71% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
No single place dominates Aiken’s commute
The biggest draw, Augusta, GA, gets only 7% of working residents, and 57% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Aiken residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Aiken is where the jobs are
Aiken has 19,491 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Where Aiken’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Aiken is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #76 of 168 in South Carolina. Job access by car holds Aiken’s grade up (ahead of 65% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.0%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Aiken could be anywhere from C to B−.
The daily trip into Aiken
Where Aiken clocks in
3% of workers
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Aiken by day and by night
On a workday 8,582 residents head out to work, 3,010 work right here, and 16,481 people come in from elsewhere.
About 42,000 people are in Aiken on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The kinds of work in Aiken
19,491 jobs are based in Aiken.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Aiken, 2013 → 2023: 25,313 → 19,491. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Aiken’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Aiken’s commute takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Aiken workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 12,061 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across South Carolina: 86% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far Aiken’s workers travel
About 22% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Aiken: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Aiken is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns, #61 of 169 in South Carolina. Both inputs place Aiken near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 13,740 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.4% of Aiken households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Aiken’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Aiken is 979th among 1,255 U.S. towns of 24,000 to 46,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Fort Mill SC | 38,673 | $122K | 4.8% | 2.3% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 272 | Bluffton SC | 36,807 | $111K | 4.3% | 2.2% | 19% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 563 | Simpsonville SC | 28,459 | $82K | 6.1% | 4.1% | 5% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 977 | Belleville IL | 40,237 | $64K | 14.6% | 6.1% | 20% | C+ |
| 978 | Middletown NY | 30,098 | $79K | 13.6% | 6.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 979 | Aiken SC | 33,808 | $77K | 17.0% | 5.4% | 26% | C+ |
| 980 | Apache Junction AZ | 45,672 | $61K | 10.6% | 6.5% | 6% | C+ |
| 981 | Lancaster OH | 41,956 | $59K | 12.6% | 5.0% | 26% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,255 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Aiken, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Aiken: questions
What is the median household income in Aiken?
$76,746 (±$5,591) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Aiken?
17.0%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Aiken?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Aiken work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Augusta (7%, 23 mi), Columbia (3%, 59 mi), North Augusta (2%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Aiken walkable?
Aiken is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Aiken without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Aiken, from the people who make the trip.
More of Aiken
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.