Drayton Mill · Photo: PegasusRacer28 · CC BY-SA 4.0Drayton draws 2,481 commuters a day, with 5.4 jobs for every working resident
Drayton has 2,491 jobs, against 462 working residents. Jobs and income earn Drayton C+; getting around on foot earns it D. For 5% of workers, the job is at home, next to 12% for South Carolina as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Drayton apart on work
Drayton fills up on a workday
Drayton has 2,491 jobs, 5.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,500 people are in town, more than double the 1,500 who live here. Day and night ↓
Nearly all the work in Drayton is services
99% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 0% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Drayton and Spartanburg trade workers both ways
Spartanburg is the top workplace for Drayton residents (21%) and also where the most people who work in Drayton come from (10% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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 462 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Drayton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Drayton is better than 40% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Drayton’s grade up (ahead of 70% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (27.1%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Drayton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Drayton could be anywhere from D to A−.
Drayton on a workday afternoon
On a workday 452 residents head out to work and 10 work right here.
About 3,500 people are in Drayton on a workday afternoon, 140% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Drayton
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Drayton, 2013 → 2023: 2,955 → 2,491. 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 Drayton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting in to Drayton: where workers come from
Where Drayton clocks in
21% 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.
Drayton’s commute takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Drayton workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 699 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 many miles Drayton commutes
About 15% 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.
In Drayton, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Drayton is more walkable than 15% 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 734 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). 5.0% of Drayton households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Drayton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Drayton is 2,858th of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 263 | Pimlico SC | 1,765 | $137K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 268 | Sullivan's Island SC | 1,961 | $193K | 8.8% | 1.5% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 507 | Cane Savannah SC | 1,551 | $132K | 4.6% | 11.8% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,856 | Oakland Township PA | 1,335 | $78K | 8.1% | 6.6% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,857 | Clarno WI | 1,142 | $84K | 12.3% | 0.6% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,858 | Drayton SC | 1,452 | $78K | 27.1% | 0.0% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,859 | Owensville IN | 1,332 | $57K | 6.2% | 5.2% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,860 | Mediapolis IA | 1,660 | $76K | 9.7% | 1.9% | 15% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Drayton, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
The towns next door employ 21% of Drayton
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Drayton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drayton | – | C+ | D | 27 min | $77,813 |
| Spartanburg | 21% | C− | B+ | 20 min | $51,964 |
| Whitney | under 2% | B− | C | 21 min | $51,275 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Spartanburg. Darker towns draw more of Drayton’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 Drayton: questions
What is the median household income in Drayton?
$77,813 (±$53,112) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Drayton?
27.1%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Drayton?
27 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 Drayton work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Spartanburg (21%, 2 mi), Greenville (6%, 28 mi), Greer (3%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Drayton walkable?
Drayton is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Drayton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Drayton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Drayton
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.