Photo: Dr. Blazer · CC BY-SA 4.0Cayce has 2.5 jobs for every working resident: 14,676 people commute in to work
Cayce has 15,179 jobs for 6,119 working residents. The two grades for Cayce are C+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. About one in ten stay in Cayce for work; outside it, Columbia is the main destination (30%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Cayce, in brief
Cayce is where the jobs are
Cayce has 15,179 jobs, 2.5 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 23,000 people are in town, 66% more than the 14,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Cayce works one town over
37% of working residents work in a town that borders Cayce: Columbia (30%), West Columbia (6%) and Arthurtown (1%). Next door ↓
Cayce draws workers from far and wide
The 15,179 jobs in Cayce are filled from a wide area. The ten biggest home towns of its workers supply 25%; the other 72% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Most Cayce residents work close to home
65% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Commutes from Cayce are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 26 across South Carolina. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical South Carolina worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
Inside Cayce’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cayce is better than 43% of U.S. towns, #71 of 168 in South Carolina. Job access by car holds Cayce’s grade up (ahead of 84% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($62,045, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cayce could be anywhere from C to B+.
Cayce by day and by night
On a workday 5,616 residents head out to work and 503 work right here.
About 23,000 people are in Cayce on a workday afternoon, 66% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Cayce: where workers come from
Where Cayce clocks in
30% of workers
6% of workers
3% 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 far Cayce’s workers travel
About 16% 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.
The trip to work from Cayce: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cayce workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,834 commuters (the 6% 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.
The kinds of work in Cayce
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cayce, 2013 → 2023: 11,895 → 15,179. 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 Cayce’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Cayce walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cayce is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns, #89 of 169 in South Carolina. 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 7,280 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 71% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 24% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 79% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.5% of Cayce households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cayce’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Cayce is 1,399th among 2,059 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 18,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Tega Cay SC | 14,457 | $142K | 1.5% | 2.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 205 | James Island SC | 12,660 | $104K | 5.6% | 1.2% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 654 | Powdersville SC | 10,771 | $85K | 9.3% | 1.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,397 | South Sioux City NE | 14,158 | $68K | 12.2% | 5.0% | 17% | C+ |
| 1,398 | Glens Falls NY | 14,383 | $68K | 11.3% | 4.9% | 23% | C+ |
| 1,399 | Cayce SC | 13,680 | $62K | 13.7% | 5.3% | 8% | C+ |
| 1,400 | Vero Beach FL | 17,603 | $70K | 16.1% | 3.4% | 26% | C+ |
| 1,401 | Noble Township IN | 13,633 | $65K | 12.6% | 3.1% | 42% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,059 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Cayce, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
Work next door: 37% of Cayce’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cayce workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cayce | – | C+ | B− | 20 min | $62,045 |
| Arthurtown | 1% | C− | B− | 19 min | $21,046 |
| West Columbia | 6% | C+ | B+ | 20 min | $56,912 |
| Columbia | 30% | C− | A+ | 18 min | $55,529 |
| Springdale | under 1% | B+ | B+ | 19 min | $77,722 |
| Olympia | under 1% | — | — | 26 min | — |
| Pine Ridge | under 1% | A− | D− | 20 min | $95,000 |
Same-state neighbors only. Olympia: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Columbia. Darker towns draw more of Cayce’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Cayce: questions
What is the median household income in Cayce?
$62,045 (±$8,079) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cayce?
13.7%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cayce?
20 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cayce work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbia (30%, 10 mi), West Columbia (6%, 4 mi), Lexington (3%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cayce walkable?
Cayce is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 11.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cayce without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 24% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cayce, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cayce
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.