Photo: BeaufortTiger · CC BY-SA 4.0Walterboro draws 4,445 commuters a day, with 2.3 jobs for every working resident
5,012 jobs are based in Walterboro, against 2,207 working residents. Jobs and income earn Walterboro D; getting around on foot earns it C. Household incomes here are lower than in 79% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Walterboro
Walterboro draws workers from far and wide
The 5,012 jobs in Walterboro are filled from a wide area. Walterboro’s own residents hold 11% and the ten next-biggest home towns 8%; the other 81% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Walterboro is where the jobs are
Walterboro has 5,012 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 8,300 people are in town, 51% more than the 5,500 who live here. Day and night ↓
Walterboro’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Walterboro is North Charleston, 36 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (218) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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: Walterboro’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Walterboro is better than 11% of U.S. towns, #140 of 168 in South Carolina. Job access by car holds Walterboro’s grade up (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (28.2%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Walterboro could be anywhere from D− to C+.
The towns that send workers to Walterboro
Where Walterboro clocks in
10% of workers
7% of workers
3% 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.
How many people are in Walterboro by day
On a workday 1,640 residents head out to work and 567 work right here.
About 8,300 people are in Walterboro on a workday afternoon, 51% more 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.
How far it is to work from Walterboro
About 22% 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 kinds of work in Walterboro
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Walterboro, 2013 → 2023: 4,797 → 5,012. 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 Walterboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walterboro’s commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Walterboro workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,181 commuters (the 13% 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 Walterboro, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Walterboro is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns, #135 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 2,506 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). 25.0% of Walterboro households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Walterboro’s commuters take a bus or train.
Walterboro next to U.S. towns of 3,800 to 7,400
| # | 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 86 | Isle of Palms SC | 4,377 | $157K | 2.5% | 1.3% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 102 | India Hook SC | 3,960 | $107K | 1.2% | 0.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 228 | Lake Murray of Richland SC | 7,023 | $119K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,284 | Lincoln Park CO | 3,986 | $60K | 13.9% | 8.6% | 4% | D |
| 3,285 | Mount Carmel IL | 6,723 | $47K | 20.3% | 4.5% | 33% | D |
| 3,286 | Walterboro SC | 5,485 | $56K | 28.2% | 6.1% | 26% | D |
| 3,287 | Sinton TX | 5,966 | $52K | 25.0% | 8.4% | 17% | D |
| 3,288 | Wapato WA | 4,469 | $52K | 24.5% | 7.9% | 13% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,612 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Walterboro, 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 Walterboro: questions
What is the median household income in Walterboro?
$56,457 (±$10,325) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Walterboro?
28.2%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Walterboro?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Walterboro work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are North Charleston (10%, 36 mi), Charleston (7%, 41 mi), Columbia (3%, 80 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Walterboro walkable?
Walterboro is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Walterboro without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 25% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Walterboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Walterboro
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.