Ninety Six National Historic Site · Photo: Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0Ninety Six has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
378 jobs are based in Ninety Six; 891 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Ninety Six D; getting around on foot earns it C−. Household incomes here are lower than in 81% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Ninety Six apart on work
Where Ninety Six’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ninety Six is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Ninety Six’s grade up (ahead of 38% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (22.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ninety Six could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Ninety Six’s commute takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ninety Six workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 923 commuters (the 1% 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.
Who commutes out of Ninety Six, and who commutes in
On a workday 840 residents head out to work, 51 work right here, and 327 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Ninety Six on a workday afternoon, 25% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
27% of working residents work in Greenwood
Where Ninety Six clocks in
27% of workers
3% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Ninety Six
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ninety Six, 2013 → 2023: 432 → 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 Ninety Six’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Ninety Six
About 20% 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.
The commute in Ninety Six is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ninety Six is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ninety Six near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 935 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). 4.9% of Ninety Six households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ninety Six’s commuters take a bus or train.
4,308th of 5,148: where Ninety Six ranks among U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 284 | Pimlico SC | 1,765 | $137K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 289 | Sullivan's Island SC | 1,961 | $193K | 8.8% | 1.5% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 407 | Folly Beach SC | 2,081 | $102K | 4.0% | 2.1% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,306 | Unionville GA | 2,000 | $53K | 31.8% | 10.5% | 0% | D |
| 4,307 | Gordo AL | 1,553 | $48K | 14.9% | 2.8% | 5% | D |
| 4,308 | Ninety Six SC | 2,089 | $55K | 22.6% | 7.2% | 6% | D |
| 4,309 | Jefferson Township IN | 1,933 | $64K | 16.9% | 4.0% | 7% | D |
| 4,310 | Elkton KY | 2,387 | $49K | 18.2% | 0.5% | 21% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,148 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Ninety Six, 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 Ninety Six: questions
What is the median household income in Ninety Six?
$55,417 (±$10,429) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ninety Six?
22.6%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ninety Six?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ninety Six work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greenwood (27%, 8 mi), Columbia (3%, 65 mi), Greenville (2%, 50 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ninety Six walkable?
Ninety Six is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ninety Six without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ninety Six, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ninety Six
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.