Thorntree · Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes put Kingstree near the very bottom of U.S. towns
Kingstree grades D− for jobs and income and A for walkability. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. 33.9% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 14.1% for South Carolina as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Kingstree, in brief
Kingstree is where the jobs are
Kingstree has 2,104 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Kingstree workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Kingstree’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 21% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% 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 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
The figures behind Kingstree’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Kingstree is better than 3% of U.S. towns, #163 of 168 in South Carolina. Job access by car holds Kingstree’s grade up (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($26,322, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (6.8%) is left out: Kingstree’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Kingstree stays D−.
Who commutes out of Kingstree, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,052 residents head out to work, 206 work right here, and 1,898 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,900 people are in Kingstree on a workday afternoon, 28% more than live here.
1.7 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Kingstree
2,104 jobs are based in Kingstree.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kingstree, 2013 → 2023: 2,397 → 2,104. 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 Kingstree’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Kingstree’s workers travel
About 31% 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.
Commuting in to Kingstree: where workers come from
Where Kingstree clocks in
6% of workers
3% 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.
About 27 minutes to work from Kingstree
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kingstree workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 717 commuters (the 13% 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.
In Kingstree, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kingstree is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #11 of 169 in South Carolina. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.4% across South Carolina, on an EPA index of 8.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 823 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). 38.4% of Kingstree households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Kingstree’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,100, and where Kingstree sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 98 | India Hook SC | 3,960 | $107K | 1.2% | 0.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 501 | Golden Grove SC | 2,913 | $73K | 3.1% | 1.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 665 | Keowee Key SC | 3,351 | $125K | 2.1% | 2.6% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,613 | Georgetown GA | 2,254 | $40K | 15.7% | 28.6% | 8% | D− |
| 4,614 | Warsaw MO | 2,338 | $41K | 20.1% | 3.7% | 16% | D− |
| 4,615 | Kingstree SC | 3,022 | $26K | 33.9% | 6.8% | 16% | D− |
| 4,616 | Ainaloa HI | 4,094 | $59K | 26.7% | 17.8% | 0% | D− |
| 4,617 | Falmouth KY | 2,200 | $35K | 27.8% | 3.5% | 17% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,771 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Kingstree, 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 Kingstree: questions
What is the median household income in Kingstree?
$26,322 (±$7,495) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kingstree?
33.9%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kingstree?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kingstree work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Florence (6%, 35 mi), Charleston (3%, 59 mi), North Charleston (3%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kingstree walkable?
Kingstree is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kingstree without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 38% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kingstree, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kingstree
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.