ClearwaterSC
A town of 3,319, settled in 1901.
Is Clearwater a good place to live?
Clearwater gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $158K, 2.3 years of the Augusta metro’s $69K median household income. It grades C+ overall, 68th of 167 graded towns in South Carolina. The low prices come with trade-offs. Residents are less healthy than 86% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates, and the median household income is $52K, and 17% of residents live below the poverty line. On the plus side, natural-hazard risk is low. Only 17 of South Carolina’s 263 towns score lower on the outdoors.
What makes Clearwater stand out
Where Clearwater beats most towns.
98% of working residents leave Clearwater for work
Where Clearwater’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Clearwater grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within South Carolina), ordered by how far Clearwater is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Clearwater: who provides what
Clearwater is unincorporated, so Aiken County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 12, 2025.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Clearwater.
Clearwater sends many workers across the state line to Martinez, is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has homes that are cheap against local pay.
Clearwater earns a D for health
Against the 6,370 U.S. towns with household incomes like Clearwater’s, it is less healthy than 68%, so that grade isn’t only a matter of income.
Among adults in Clearwater, 26% say their health is fair or poor. In Clearwater, 16% of adults have diabetes, above both South Carolina’s towns (15%) and U.S. towns (12%).
| Clearwater | South Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 28% | 25% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 13% | 8.1% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 15% | 12% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 22% | 19% |
| What stands out | Clearwater | SC |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 16.3% | 11.8% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 23.7% | 17.4% |
| More smokers | 17.8% | 13.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Clearwater’s schools rank ahead of 62% of South Carolina districts
Its one school is below. The public schools here belong to the Aiken 01 school district. Clearwater’s only public school teaches 338 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 338 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within SC on state tests and graduation
Top of a low hazard risk in Clearwater: inland flooding
The risk rating from FEMA for Clearwater comes to 20 of 100, where South Carolina’s towns sit at 45 of 100 and U.S. towns at 44 of 100. Of the losses FEMA expects locally, 46% come from inland flooding and 15% from hurricanes. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Clearwater once, in 2024.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Clearwater has 0.4 jobs per working resident, so most workers leave town for work
32% of working residents cross a state line to work, Martinez among the top destinations.
The top destinations are Augusta (24%), Aiken (10%) and North Augusta (9%). Commuting out is the norm in Clearwater: 2% of working residents work locally. Employers in Clearwater added 98 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 504. Half of commuters travel less than 14 miles.
| Clearwater | South Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $52,000 | $57,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 2.1% | 6.3% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Clearwater stands out in South Carolina and nationally: a typical July afternoon there is hotter
Clearwater brings mild winters and hot summers. July afternoons reach 93°, January nights drop to 35° and snow is almost unheard of.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The median home in Clearwater sells for about $203K
At 2.3 years of the Augusta metro’s $69K median household income, the typical home costs less against local pay than in 87% of South Carolina towns; that ratio is one input to its A for cost of living.
In Clearwater, 58% of households own their home. Its median rent stands at $735 a month.
| Clearwater | South Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 58% | 65% | 73% |
| Median rent | $735 a month | $1,062 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Fort Gordon and 5 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Clearwater. Close and well known come first.
14 mi LandmarkFort Gordon
4 mi Stadium & arenaJames Brown Arena
4 mi MuseumMeadow Garden
4 mi MuseumMorris Museum of Art120K visitors a year
4 mi GardenAugusta Botanical Gardens5 mi MuseumBeech Island Historical SocietyPhoto credits
Fort Gordon: U.S. Army Cyber Command, Public domain · James Brown Arena: Thomson200, CC0 · Meadow Garden: Flickr user Sir Mildred Pierce, CC BY 2.0 · Morris Museum of Art: Thomson200, CC0 · Augusta Botanical Gardens: Liam Wolff (Ospr3yy at en.wikipedia), FAL
Everything we know about Clearwater
Colleges nearby
6 within 15 miles of the center of Clearwater
About 2 of every 100 Clearwater residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across South Carolina.
About Clearwater
Census-designated place in South Carolina, United States
Clearwater is a census-designated place (CDP) in Aiken County, South Carolina. It lies near North Augusta, South Carolina, and is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area. Clearwater is located in historic Horse Creek Valley. The population was 4,370 at the time of the 2010 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 4.3 sq mi
- Elevation
- 148 ft
- ZIP code
- 29822
Clearwater’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Clearwater.
| Town | SC rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater | #68 | C+ | A | — | B | D |
| Burnettown | #67 | C+ | A− | B+ | B | D |
| North Augusta | #14 | A− | B | — | B | B+ |
Clearwater and North Augusta report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Clearwater with a neighbor →
Questions about Clearwater
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Clearwater, SC a good place to live?
Clearwater grades C+ overall, better than 44% of U.S. towns and #68 of 167 in South Carolina. It grades D for health and B for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Clearwater, SC expensive?
Not for the area. The typical home is worth about $158,000, 48% below the South Carolina typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.