Cowpens Depot · Photo: Bill Fitzpatrick · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Cowpens earn less than those in 96% of U.S. towns
Only 2% work in Cowpens; the top destination outside it is Spartanburg (18%, 8 miles). 29.1% of residents are in poverty, where South Carolina as a whole has 14.1%. The two grades for Cowpens are D for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Cowpens in brief
Why Cowpens gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Cowpens is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Cowpens’ grade up (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($39,094, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.9%) is left out: Cowpens’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Cowpens could be anywhere from D to C.
The daily flow of workers through Cowpens
On a workday 792 residents head out to work, 16 work right here, and 220 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Cowpens on a workday afternoon, 25% fewer than live here.
0.29 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.
The towns that employ Cowpens’ residents
Where Cowpens clocks in
18% 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.
33% of the jobs in Cowpens make or build things
236 jobs are based in Cowpens.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cowpens, 2013 → 2023: 182 → 236. 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 Cowpens’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Cowpens, about 24 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cowpens workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 702 commuters (the 8% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Cowpens
About 17% 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 commute in Cowpens is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cowpens is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Cowpens 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 764 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). 9.0% of Cowpens households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cowpens’ commuters take a bus or train.
Cowpens is 4,290th of 5,102 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 294 | Pimlico SC | 1,765 | $137K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 299 | Sullivan's Island SC | 1,961 | $193K | 8.8% | 1.5% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 415 | Folly Beach SC | 2,081 | $102K | 4.0% | 2.1% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,288 | Texanna OK | 2,401 | $51K | 10.6% | 5.2% | 2% | D |
| 4,289 | Marion MS | 1,721 | $47K | 21.2% | 7.2% | 2% | D |
| 4,290 | Cowpens SC | 2,257 | $39K | 29.1% | 1.9% | 2% | D |
| 4,291 | Elk Township IL | 1,721 | $47K | 18.8% | 6.6% | 3% | D |
| 4,292 | Home Township MI | 2,813 | $56K | 22.2% | 4.9% | 12% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Cowpens, 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 Cowpens: questions
What is the median household income in Cowpens?
$39,094 (±$12,091) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cowpens?
29.1%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cowpens?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cowpens work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Spartanburg (18%, 8 mi), Southern Shops (3%, 11 mi), Gaffney (3%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cowpens walkable?
Cowpens is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cowpens without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cowpens, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cowpens
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.