Photo: Laura Blankenship · CC BY-SA 2.0At 1.6%, unemployment in Litchfield Beach is lower than in 89% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Litchfield Beach itself; outside it, Georgetown draws the most (9%, 12 miles). The two grades for Litchfield Beach are B+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. 19% of workers work from home, against 12% across South Carolina.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Litchfield Beach in brief
Litchfield Beach’s workforce skews older
39% of Litchfield Beach’s working residents are 55 or older. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
36% 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.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Litchfield Beach
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Litchfield Beach is better than 67% of U.S. towns, #31 of 168 in South Carolina. Unemployment holds Litchfield Beach’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 47% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Litchfield Beach could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Litchfield Beach
3,761 jobs are based in Litchfield Beach.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Litchfield Beach, 2013 → 2023: 2,797 → 3,761. 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 Litchfield Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Litchfield Beach to work
About 36% 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.
How a workday changes Litchfield Beach
On a workday 2,550 residents head out to work, 502 work right here, and 3,259 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 (1.23 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.
Where Litchfield Beach’s working residents head each day
Where Litchfield Beach clocks in
6% of workers
5% 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.
Litchfield Beach’s commute takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Litchfield Beach workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,427 commuters (the 19% 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 commute in Litchfield Beach is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Litchfield Beach is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #48 of 169 in South Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, above 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 2,999 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). 3.6% of Litchfield Beach households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Litchfield Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
Litchfield Beach places 1,215th of 2,891 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 6,300 to 12,200
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 233 | Lake Murray of Richland SC | 7,023 | $119K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 817 | Powdersville SC | 10,771 | $85K | 9.3% | 1.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 968 | Blythewood SC | 7,233 | $94K | 4.8% | 5.0% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,213 | Fairwood WA | 10,674 | $92K | 7.8% | 3.8% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,214 | Earl Township PA | 7,149 | $84K | 10.8% | 3.1% | 19% | B+ |
| 1,215 | Litchfield Beach SC | 9,044 | $76K | 8.5% | 1.6% | 16% | B+ |
| 1,216 | Long Creek Township IL | 10,139 | $85K | 6.0% | 4.1% | 5% | B+ |
| 1,217 | Schuyler NE | 6,800 | $80K | 6.8% | 1.6% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,891 | 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 Litchfield Beach, 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 Litchfield Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Litchfield Beach?
$76,351 (±$4,992) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Litchfield Beach?
8.5%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Litchfield Beach?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Litchfield Beach work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Georgetown (9%, 12 mi), Myrtle Beach (6%, 21 mi), Murrells Inlet (5%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Litchfield Beach walkable?
Litchfield Beach is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Litchfield Beach without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Litchfield Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Litchfield 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.