Photo: Evanoco · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes put Blackville near the very bottom of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 32.9%, against 14.1% across South Carolina. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Blackville grades D− for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Blackville in brief
Fewer jobs are based in Blackville than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Blackville fell from 525 in 2013 to 339 in 2023, −35%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Blackville workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Blackville’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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; with 789 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Blackville gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Blackville is near the bottom of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Blackville’s grade up (ahead of 16% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($21,742, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Blackville’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Blackville stays D−.
Goods, not services: 33% of the jobs in Blackville
339 jobs are based in Blackville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Blackville, 2013 → 2023: 525 → 339. 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 Blackville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Blackville
On a workday 744 residents head out to work, 45 work right here, and 294 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Blackville on a workday afternoon, 23% fewer than live here.
0.43 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
8% of working residents work in Barnwell
Where Blackville clocks in
8% of workers
7% of workers
5% 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.
How long Blackville spends getting to work: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Blackville workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 598 commuters (the 5% 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 it is to work from Blackville
About 24% 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.
For most of Blackville, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Blackville is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.4% across South Carolina.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 627 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). 24.5% of Blackville households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Blackville’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600, and where Blackville sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 302 | Pimlico SC | 1,765 | $137K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 307 | Sullivan's Island SC | 1,961 | $193K | 8.8% | 1.5% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 433 | Folly Beach SC | 2,081 | $102K | 4.0% | 2.1% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,787 | Hayti MO | 2,277 | $25K | 42.5% | 10.5% | 24% | D− |
| 5,788 | Estill SC | 1,778 | $36K | 24.4% | 6.4% | 6% | D− |
| 5,789 | Blackville SC | 1,925 | $22K | 32.9% | 1.5% | 6% | D− |
| 5,790 | East Millinocket ME | 1,567 | $42K | 21.7% | 6.3% | 13% | D− |
| 5,791 | Crow Agency MT | 2,192 | $52K | 39.2% | 32.4% | 44% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Blackville, 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 Blackville: questions
What is the median household income in Blackville?
$21,742 (±$11,917) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Blackville?
32.9%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Blackville?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Blackville work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Barnwell (8%, 8 mi), Aiken (7%, 28 mi), Columbia (5%, 53 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Blackville walkable?
Blackville is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Blackville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 24% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Blackville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Blackville
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.