USS Yorktown (Cv-10) · Public domainHousehold incomes in Mount Pleasant top those of 90% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Mount Pleasant is better than 88% of U.S. towns (A); for walkability it is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (B). The poverty rate is 6.1%, against 14.1% across South Carolina. Home is the office for 27% of workers; South Carolina has 12%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Mount Pleasant apart on work
Home offices are common in Mount Pleasant
27% of Mount Pleasant workers work from home, against 12% across South Carolina. Time on the road ↓
Mount Pleasant trades workers with the towns around it
Mount Pleasant has about as many jobs (38,378) as working residents (39,998), but they are mostly different people: 29,094 residents leave for work each day while 27,474 people come in. Only 28% of the jobs in Mount Pleasant are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Mount Pleasant and Charleston trade workers both ways
Charleston is the top workplace for Mount Pleasant residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Mount Pleasant come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Mount Pleasant has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Mount Pleasant went from 23,706 in 2013 to 38,378 in 2023, +62%. The jobs ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Mount Pleasant’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Household income is its strongest input ($124,755, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.3%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mount Pleasant could be anywhere from A− to A.
About 25 minutes to work from Mount Pleasant
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Pleasant workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 34,628 commuters (the 27% 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 daily commute in and out of Mount Pleasant
On a workday 29,094 residents head out to work, 10,904 work right here, and 27,474 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 (0.96 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.
The towns that employ Mount Pleasant’s residents
Where Mount Pleasant clocks in
27% of workers
14% of workers
2% 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.
What Mount Pleasant’s employers do
38,378 jobs are based in Mount Pleasant.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Pleasant, 2013 → 2023: 23,706 → 38,378. 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 Mount Pleasant’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Mount Pleasant
About 17% 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.
Getting around Mount Pleasant: mostly by car
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 47,270 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 28% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 2% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 65% 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). 2.6% of Mount Pleasant households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Mount Pleasant’s commuters take a bus or train.
67th of 457: where Mount Pleasant ranks among U.S. towns of 67,000 to 129,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| 3 | Bethesda MD | 69,397 | $192K | 4.3% | 3.1% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Broomfield CO | 79,174 | $124K | 6.2% | 3.8% | 12% | A |
| 66 | Rockville MD | 67,563 | $129K | 7.6% | 3.9% | 14% | A |
| 67 | Mount Pleasant SC | 95,469 | $125K | 6.1% | 3.3% | 27% | A |
| 68 | North Richland Hills TX | 70,843 | $97K | 7.2% | 3.2% | 5% | A |
| 69 | Greenburgh NY | 94,537 | $152K | 5.8% | 5.2% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 282 | Greenville SC | 75,310 | $71K | 14.0% | 4.4% | 38% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 329 | Rock Hill SC | 75,911 | $69K | 12.6% | 5.8% | 29% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 457 | Flint MI | 79,306 | $38K | 34.1% | 14.8% | 20% | 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 Mount Pleasant, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
Work next door: 28% of Mount Pleasant’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mount Pleasant workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Pleasant | – | A | B | 25 min | $124,755 |
| Charleston | 27% | B+ | A | 24 min | $92,414 |
| Sullivan's Island | 1% | A | A− | 18 min | $192,813 |
| Awendaw | under 1% | C+ | C | 31 min | $77,010 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Charleston. Darker towns draw more of Mount Pleasant’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 Mount Pleasant: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Pleasant?
$124,755 (±$7,852) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Pleasant?
6.1%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Pleasant?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 27% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Pleasant work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charleston (27%, 6 mi), North Charleston (14%, 14 mi), Columbia (2%, 104 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Pleasant walkable?
Mount Pleasant is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 9.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Pleasant without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 2% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Pleasant, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Pleasant
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.