Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Folly Beach are higher than in 79% of U.S. towns
4.0% of residents live below the poverty line, against 14.1% across South Carolina. The two grades for Folly Beach are A for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. 33% of workers have no commute at all, 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
Folly Beach and work: the main findings
Folly Beach and Charleston trade workers both ways
Charleston is the top workplace for Folly Beach residents (31%) and also where the most people who work in Folly Beach come from (40% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Folly Beach is where the jobs are
Folly Beach has 1,014 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Home offices are common in Folly Beach
33% of Folly Beach workers work from home, against 12% across South Carolina. 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; with 619 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Folly Beach’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Folly Beach is better than 88% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input; job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (2.1%) is left out: Folly Beach’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, Folly Beach could be anywhere from C+ to A+.
Commuting in to Folly Beach: where workers come from
Where Folly Beach clocks in
31% of workers
12% 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.
In and out of Folly Beach on a workday
On a workday 538 residents head out to work, 81 work right here, and 933 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Folly Beach on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
About 27 minutes to work from Folly Beach
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Folly Beach workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 445 commuters (the 33% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Folly Beach
1,014 jobs are based in Folly Beach.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Folly Beach, 2013 → 2023: 286 → 1,014. 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 Folly Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Folly Beach’s workers travel
About 24% 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.
Driving is how Folly Beach gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Folly Beach is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.4% across South Carolina, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 664 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 23% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 48% 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). 1.6% of Folly Beach households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Folly Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
407th of 5,148: where Folly Beach ranks among U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 284 | Pimlico SC | 1,765 | $137K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 289 | Sullivan's Island SC | 1,961 | $193K | 8.8% | 1.5% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 405 | Ko Olina HI | 1,670 | $133K | 6.8% | 0.8% | 3% | A |
| 406 | Rivanna VA | 2,211 | $146K | 4.6% | 8.1% | 2% | A |
| 407 | Folly Beach SC | 2,081 | $102K | 4.0% | 2.1% | 13% | A |
| 408 | Princetown NY | 2,113 | $98K | 4.2% | 4.1% | 3% | A |
| 409 | Farmington WI | 2,027 | $115K | 5.5% | 0.9% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 537 | Cane Savannah SC | 1,551 | $132K | 4.6% | 11.8% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,148 | 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 Folly Beach, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
31% of Folly Beach works in a bordering town
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Folly Beach workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Folly Beach | – | A | B+ | 27 min | $102,279 |
| Charleston | 31% | B+ | A | 24 min | $92,414 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Charleston. Darker towns draw more of Folly Beach’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 Folly Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Folly Beach?
$102,279 (±$64,730) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Folly Beach?
4.0%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Folly Beach?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 33% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Folly Beach work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charleston (31%, 11 mi), North Charleston (12%, 18 mi), Mount Pleasant (7%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Folly Beach walkable?
Folly Beach is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Folly Beach without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Folly Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Folly Beach
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.