Photo: Mikeiamunion21 · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Dillon are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 32.8% of residents; South Carolina has 14.1%. For jobs and income Dillon is better than 5% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (C). Working from home is the commute for 1% of workers, where South Carolina as a whole has 12%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Dillon and work: the main findings
No single place dominates Dillon’s commute
The biggest draw, Florence, gets only 8% of working residents, and 56% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Dillon residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Dillon workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Dillon’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Dillon’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Dillon is Florence, 30 miles away as the crow flies. 8% of working residents (200) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Dillon workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 12% across South Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Many jobs in Dillon pay little
26% of the jobs based in Dillon pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. 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.
How Dillon earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Dillon’s grade up (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($35,891, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dillon could be anywhere from D− to D.
8% of working residents work in Florence
Where Dillon clocks in
8% 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.
Inside Dillon’s 3,400 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dillon, 2013 → 2023: 4,181 → 3,400. 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 Dillon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Dillon
About 30% 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.
About 28 minutes to work from Dillon
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dillon workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,160 commuters (the 1% 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.
Dillon on a workday afternoon
On a workday 2,031 residents head out to work, 513 work right here, and 2,887 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,100 people are in Dillon on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.34 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Most of Dillon commutes by car
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 2,173 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). 12.6% of Dillon households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Dillon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Dillon and other U.S. towns of 4,400 to 8,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 204 | Lake Murray of Richland SC | 7,023 | $119K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 692 | Baxter Village SC | 4,542 | $152K | 9.2% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 922 | Blythewood SC | 7,233 | $94K | 4.8% | 5.0% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,193 | Forest City NC | 7,410 | $36K | 32.1% | 7.5% | 15% | D− |
| 3,194 | Trinidad CO | 8,091 | $52K | 21.1% | 7.3% | 46% | D− |
| 3,195 | Dillon SC | 6,227 | $36K | 32.8% | 8.0% | 20% | D− |
| 3,196 | Hearne TX | 4,719 | $37K | 27.3% | 15.3% | 18% | D− |
| 3,197 | Lewistown MT | 6,179 | $49K | 20.9% | 7.0% | 52% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,297 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Dillon, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
The towns around Dillon
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Dillon workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dillon | – | D− | C | 28 min | $35,891 |
| Newtown | under 1% | — | — | 30 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Newtown: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Dillon’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 Dillon: questions
What is the median household income in Dillon?
$35,891 (±$3,001) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dillon?
32.8%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dillon?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dillon work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Florence (8%, 30 mi), Little Rock (5%, 3 mi), Columbia (2%, 91 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dillon walkable?
Dillon is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dillon without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dillon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dillon
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.