Photo: Ser Amantio di Nicolao · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Holly Hill earn less than those in 98% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 38.6% of residents, against 14.1% across South Carolina. The two grades for Holly Hill are D for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers (South Carolina 12%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Holly Hill in brief
Holly Hill’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Holly Hill is North Charleston, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (66) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Holly Hill
54% of Holly Hill residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 33% of the jobs based in Holly Hill pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 93% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 496 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Holly Hill
On income, poverty and job access, Holly Hill is better than 5% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Holly Hill’s grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (3.4%) is left out: Holly Hill’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, Holly Hill could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The distance from Holly Hill to work
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
What Holly Hill’s employers do
487 jobs are based in Holly Hill.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Holly Hill, 2014 → 2024: 577 → 487. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Holly Hill’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Holly Hill on a workday
On a workday 460 residents head out to work, 36 work right here, and 451 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.98 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
13% of working residents work in North Charleston
Where Holly Hill clocks in
13% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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.
How long Holly Hill spends getting to work: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Holly Hill workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 350 commuters (the 0% 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.
Most trips from Holly Hill start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Holly Hill is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% of 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 350 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). 14.3% of Holly Hill households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Holly Hill’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700, and where Holly Hill sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 372 | Cane Savannah SC | 1,551 | $132K | 4.6% | 11.8% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 714 | Shell Point SC | 1,439 | $82K | 3.1% | 6.4% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,070 | Elgin SC | 1,675 | $92K | 4.2% | 7.3% | 1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,385 | Crane MO | 1,509 | $37K | 34.2% | 6.5% | 10% | D |
| 4,386 | Sherburne NY | 1,359 | $45K | 19.6% | 5.7% | 11% | D |
| 4,387 | Holly Hill SC | 1,280 | $34K | 38.6% | 3.4% | 7% | D |
| 4,388 | Wagner SD | 1,422 | $47K | 15.7% | 8.0% | 43% | D |
| 4,389 | Emory TX | 1,413 | $37K | 29.1% | 3.1% | 14% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Holly Hill, 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 2024, 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 Holly Hill: questions
What is the median household income in Holly Hill?
$34,135 (±$24,769) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Holly Hill?
38.6%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Holly Hill?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Holly Hill work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are North Charleston (13%, 35 mi), Orangeburg (4%, 29 mi), Charleston (4%, 43 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Holly Hill walkable?
Holly Hill is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Holly Hill without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Holly Hill, from the people who make the trip.
More of Holly Hill
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.