Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Almost no one in Ravenel’s labor force is looking for work
Ravenel grades B for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Only 2% work in Ravenel; the top destination outside it is Charleston (30%, 15 miles). Home is the office for 5% of workers; South Carolina has 12%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Ravenel, in brief
Where Ravenel’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ravenel is better than 64% of U.S. towns, #42 of 168 in South Carolina. Unemployment holds Ravenel’s grade up (hardly any, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (19.0%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ravenel could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Commuting out of Ravenel: the destinations
Where Ravenel clocks in
30% of workers
20% 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.
In and out of Ravenel on a workday
On a workday 1,074 residents head out to work, 25 work right here, and 645 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Ravenel on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.61 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Goods jobs make up 29% of work in Ravenel
670 jobs are based in Ravenel.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ravenel, 2013 → 2023: 527 → 670. 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 Ravenel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 28 minutes each way, longer than most of South Carolina
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ravenel workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,151 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.
How far it is to work from Ravenel
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.
Few in Ravenel walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ravenel is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns, #106 of 169 in South Carolina. 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 1,207 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 60% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 0.8% of Ravenel households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ravenel’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,700, Ravenel ranks 1,553rd of 4,969 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 322 | Sullivan's Island SC | 1,961 | $193K | 8.8% | 1.5% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 462 | Folly Beach SC | 2,081 | $102K | 4.0% | 2.1% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 473 | Golden Grove SC | 2,913 | $73K | 3.1% | 1.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,551 | Merrill WI | 2,856 | $81K | 8.6% | 0.9% | 3% | B |
| 1,552 | Mayflower AR | 2,372 | $76K | 5.6% | 4.4% | 6% | B |
| 1,553 | Ravenel SC | 2,728 | $83K | 19.0% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,554 | Sharon Township IL | 2,814 | $107K | 15.1% | 0.0% | 0% | B |
| 1,555 | Midland Township MI | 2,201 | $92K | 4.4% | 5.8% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Ravenel, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
Next door to Ravenel
The biggest share goes to Hollywood (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Ravenel’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 Ravenel: questions
What is the median household income in Ravenel?
$82,738 (±$22,988) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ravenel?
19.0%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ravenel?
28 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 Ravenel work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charleston (30%, 15 mi), North Charleston (20%, 14 mi), Mount Pleasant (4%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ravenel walkable?
Ravenel is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 9.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ravenel without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ravenel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ravenel
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.