Photo: Gpeytoncrowder · CC BY-SA 4.0Laurens has lower household incomes than 89% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 25.4% of residents; South Carolina has 14.1%. For jobs and income Laurens is better than 33% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (C−). About one in seven work in Laurens; the top destination outside it is Greenville (7%, 30 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Laurens stands out on work
Laurens trades workers with the towns around it
Laurens has about as many jobs (3,913) as working residents (4,043), but they are mostly different people: 3,515 residents leave for work each day while 3,385 people come in. Only 13% of the jobs in Laurens are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
No single place dominates Laurens’ commute
The biggest draw, Greenville, gets only 7% of working residents, and 62% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Laurens residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Laurens are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 26 across South Carolina. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical South Carolina worker. 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.
Income, poverty and work: Laurens’ grade explained
Unemployment holds Laurens’ grade up (1.9%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Laurens could be anywhere from C− to B−.
The daily flow of workers through Laurens
On a workday 3,515 residents head out to work, 528 work right here, and 3,385 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 (0.97 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.
Commuting out of Laurens: the destinations
Where Laurens clocks in
7% 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.
How long Laurens spends getting to work: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laurens workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,497 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.
The kinds of work in Laurens
3,913 jobs are based in Laurens.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laurens, 2013 → 2023: 4,563 → 3,913. 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 Laurens’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Laurens commutes
About 21% 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 Laurens gets around
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 3,691 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). 13.9% of Laurens households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Laurens’ commuters take a bus or train.
Laurens next to U.S. towns of 6,500 to 12,600: 2,145th of 2,867 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 230 | Lake Murray of Richland SC | 7,023 | $119K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 814 | Powdersville SC | 10,771 | $85K | 9.3% | 1.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 969 | Blythewood SC | 7,233 | $94K | 4.8% | 5.0% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,143 | Corning NY | 10,514 | $62K | 11.7% | 5.8% | 28% | C |
| 2,144 | Morehead City NC | 10,434 | $56K | 18.1% | 2.0% | 31% | C |
| 2,145 | Laurens SC | 9,327 | $49K | 25.4% | 1.9% | 13% | C |
| 2,146 | Everman TX | 6,537 | $68K | 20.8% | 10.9% | 5% | C |
| 2,147 | Green Cove Springs FL | 10,079 | $75K | 12.7% | 6.4% | 15% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,867 | 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 Laurens, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
The towns around Laurens
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Laurens workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laurens | – | C | C− | 21 min | $49,246 |
| Watts Mills | under 2% | C | C | 27 min | $50,901 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Laurens’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 Laurens: questions
What is the median household income in Laurens?
$49,246 (±$13,089) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laurens?
25.4%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Laurens?
21 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 Laurens work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greenville (7%, 30 mi), Columbia (3%, 72 mi), Fountain Inn (3%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Laurens walkable?
Laurens is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laurens 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 Laurens, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laurens
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.