Hampton County Courthouse · Photo: Ffuhr · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Varnville (14.5%) is among the highest in the country
4% of workers work from home (South Carolina 12%). For jobs and income Varnville is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (C−). Measured by household income, Varnville is behind 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Varnville: the gist
The figures behind Varnville’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Varnville’s grade up (14.4%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Varnville could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How far Varnville goes to work
About 39% 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.
Who works in Varnville, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 572 residents head out to work, 52 work right here, and 834 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Varnville on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.42 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.
10% of working residents work in Hampton
Where Varnville clocks in
10% of workers
5% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Varnville
886 jobs are based in Varnville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Varnville, 2013 → 2023: 868 → 886. 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 Varnville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Varnville, about 29 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Varnville workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 992 commuters (the 4% 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.
In Varnville, most people drive to work
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 1,035 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). 18.3% of Varnville households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Varnville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Varnville places 5,367th of 6,161 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 398 | Folly Beach SC | 2,081 | $102K | 4.0% | 2.1% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,365 | Orwell OH | 1,499 | $42K | 27.4% | 6.7% | 7% | D |
| 5,366 | Warner OK | 1,587 | $55K | 19.8% | 5.8% | 10% | D |
| 5,367 | Varnville SC | 1,626 | $56K | 14.4% | 14.5% | 8% | D |
| 5,368 | Johnson City TX | 2,127 | $49K | 15.7% | 8.3% | 21% | D |
| 5,369 | Roscoe TX | 1,208 | $56K | 19.6% | 5.2% | 12% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Varnville, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
10% of Varnville works in a bordering town
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Hampton. Darker towns draw more of Varnville’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 Varnville: questions
What is the median household income in Varnville?
$55,714 (±$10,573) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Varnville?
14.4%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Varnville?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Varnville work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hampton (10%, 2 mi), Columbia (5%, 83 mi), Beaufort (4%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Varnville walkable?
Varnville is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Varnville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Varnville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Varnville
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.