Photo: JayeeDior12 · CC BY-SA 3.0Orangeburg’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
32.6% of residents live below the poverty line, against 14.1% across South Carolina. For jobs and income Orangeburg is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (B). About one in five work in Orangeburg; the top destination outside it is Columbia (6%, 38 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Orangeburg: the gist
Orangeburg draws workers from far and wide
The 8,197 jobs in Orangeburg are filled from a wide area. Orangeburg’s own residents hold 10% and the ten next-biggest home towns 11%; the other 79% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
No single place dominates Orangeburg’s commute
The biggest draw, Columbia, gets only 6% of working residents, and 60% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Orangeburg residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Orangeburg is where the jobs are
Orangeburg has 8,197 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Orangeburg workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Orangeburg’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 ↓
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: Orangeburg’s grade explained
Job access by car holds Orangeburg’s grade up (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Orangeburg stays D.
Commuting in to Orangeburg: where workers come from
Where Orangeburg clocks in
6% of workers
4% 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.
Orangeburg by day and by night
On a workday 3,935 residents head out to work, 831 work right here, and 7,366 people come in from elsewhere.
About 17,000 people are in Orangeburg on a workday afternoon, 26% 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.
What work there is in Orangeburg: 8,197 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Orangeburg, 2013 → 2023: 10,289 → 8,197. 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 Orangeburg’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 24 minutes in Orangeburg
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Orangeburg workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,071 commuters (the 12% 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 distance from Orangeburg to work
About 28% 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.
Few in Orangeburg walk, bike or ride to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.6% 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 4,603 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). 16.0% of Orangeburg households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Orangeburg’s commuters take a bus or train.
Orangeburg next to U.S. towns of 9,000 to 18,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Tega Cay SC | 14,457 | $142K | 1.5% | 2.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 245 | James Island SC | 12,660 | $104K | 5.6% | 1.2% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 789 | Powdersville SC | 10,771 | $85K | 9.3% | 1.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,460 | Americus GA | 15,617 | $39K | 32.7% | 5.4% | 27% | D |
| 2,461 | Douglas GA | 11,864 | $34K | 29.7% | 6.4% | 47% | D |
| 2,462 | Orangeburg SC | 13,383 | $39K | 32.6% | 11.8% | 17% | D |
| 2,463 | Fort Valley GA | 9,220 | $50K | 29.6% | 7.4% | 17% | D |
| 2,464 | Alexander City AL | 14,515 | $47K | 25.7% | 6.4% | 35% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,526 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Orangeburg, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
Orangeburg and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Wilkinson Heights (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Orangeburg workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orangeburg | – | D | B | 24 min | $38,635 |
| Edisto | under 1% | D | D− | 36 min | $46,788 |
| Wilkinson Heights | 5% | D | B+ | 23 min | $25,489 |
| Brookdale | 2% | D | B− | 25 min | $39,449 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Orangeburg’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 Orangeburg: questions
What is the median household income in Orangeburg?
$38,635 (±$6,911) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Orangeburg?
32.6%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Orangeburg?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Orangeburg work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbia (6%, 38 mi), Wilkinson Heights (5%, 2 mi), North Charleston (4%, 61 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Orangeburg walkable?
Orangeburg is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 9.6 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Orangeburg without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Orangeburg, from the people who make the trip.
More of Orangeburg
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.