Valley Falls’ family incomes are lower than in 77% of U.S. towns
Not counting college students, poverty touches 13.0% of residents, against 13.5% across South Carolina. The two grades for Valley Falls are C+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Only 3% work in Valley Falls; the top destination outside it is Spartanburg (16%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Valley Falls
Valley Falls has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Valley Falls went from 2,923 in 2013 to 4,632 in 2023, +58%. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
37% of the jobs based in Valley Falls are held by workers 29 or younger, against 27% of Valley Falls’ own working residents. 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.
Inside Valley Falls’ Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Valley Falls is better than 42% of U.S. towns, #74 of 168 in South Carolina. Job access by car holds Valley Falls’ grade up (ahead of 74% of U.S. towns); family income pulls it down ($72,807, U.S. $99,999).
24% of Valley Falls’ residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (17% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 13.0%, against 22.2% for all residents. Unemployment (5.5%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($72,807), since student households pull the household median down ($55,661).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Valley Falls could be anywhere from C− to A.
What the 4,632 jobs in Valley Falls are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Valley Falls, 2013 → 2023: 2,923 → 4,632. 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 Valley Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Valley Falls by day
On a workday 3,110 residents head out to work, 97 work right here, and 4,535 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,700 people are in Valley Falls on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.44 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.
Commuting out of Valley Falls: the destinations
Where Valley Falls clocks in
16% of workers
6% 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.
About 22 minutes to work from Valley Falls
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Valley Falls workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,052 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 Valley Falls
About 18% 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.
In Valley Falls, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Valley Falls is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns, #82 of 169 in South Carolina. Both inputs place Valley Falls 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 4,246 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). 3.0% of Valley Falls households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Valley Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Valley Falls ranks: 1,935th of 2,956 U.S. towns of 5,800 to 11,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 223 | Lake Murray of Richland SC | 7,023 | $119K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 786 | Powdersville SC | 10,771 | $85K | 9.3% | 1.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 933 | Blythewood SC | 7,233 | $94K | 4.8% | 5.0% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,933 | Troy Township OH | 7,113 | $62K | 9.3% | 4.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,934 | Temple Hills MD | 8,969 | $67K | 12.5% | 9.5% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,935 | Valley Falls SC | 8,239 | $56K | 22.2% | 5.5% | 3% | C+ |
| 1,936 | Greencastle IN | 9,924 | $56K | 12.2% | 3.0% | 37% | C+ |
| 1,937 | Rochester NY | 7,463 | $87K | 8.7% | 5.4% | 15% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,956 | 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 Valley Falls, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
How Valley Falls compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Boiling Springs (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Valley Falls workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valley Falls | – | C+ | B− | 22 min | $55,661 |
| Boiling Springs | 4% | B | C+ | 25 min | $72,068 |
| Southern Shops | 3% | D | C− | 22 min | $37,754 |
| Whitney | under 1% | B− | C | 21 min | $51,275 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Valley Falls’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.
- Students. 24% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Valley Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Valley Falls?
$55,661 (±$10,819) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Valley Falls?
22.2% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 13.0%. South Carolina: 14.1%.
How long is the commute from Valley Falls?
22 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 Valley Falls work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Spartanburg (16%, 5 mi), Greenville (6%, 25 mi), Boiling Springs (4%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Valley Falls walkable?
Valley Falls is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Valley Falls without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Valley Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Valley Falls
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.