White House United Methodist Church · Photo: Ammodramus · CC0Wilkinson Heights ranks among the lowest-earning U.S. towns by household income
29.7% of residents live below the poverty line, against 14.1% across South Carolina. Measured by household income, Wilkinson Heights is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Jobs and income earn Wilkinson Heights D; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Wilkinson Heights, in brief
Wilkinson Heights is where the jobs are
Wilkinson Heights has 1,914 jobs, 2.7 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,200 people are in town, 59% more than the 2,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Wilkinson Heights makes and builds things
73% of the jobs based in Wilkinson Heights are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Wilkinson Heights residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 23%. The jobs ↓
Wilkinson Heights and Orangeburg trade workers both ways
Orangeburg is the top workplace for Wilkinson Heights residents (18%) and also where the most people who work in Wilkinson Heights come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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; with 723 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Wilkinson Heights’ Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Wilkinson Heights is better than 10% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Wilkinson Heights’ grade up (ahead of 54% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($25,489, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (15.0%) is left out: Wilkinson Heights’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Wilkinson Heights stays D.
Wilkinson Heights fills up on a workday
On a workday 665 residents head out to work, 58 work right here, and 1,856 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,200 people are in Wilkinson Heights on a workday afternoon, 59% more than live here.
2.6 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.
Goods, not services: 73% of the jobs in Wilkinson Heights
1,914 jobs are based in Wilkinson Heights.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wilkinson Heights, 2013 → 2023: 3,401 → 1,914. 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 Wilkinson Heights’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Wilkinson Heights’ workforce comes from
Where Wilkinson Heights clocks in
18% 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.
A commute of about 23 minutes in Wilkinson Heights
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wilkinson Heights workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 664 commuters (the 0% 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 Wilkinson Heights to work
About 24% 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.
For most of Wilkinson Heights, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wilkinson Heights is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Wilkinson Heights 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 664 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). 22.2% of Wilkinson Heights households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wilkinson Heights’ commuters take a bus or train.
Wilkinson Heights next to U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700: 4,686th of 5,509 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 297 | Pimlico SC | 1,765 | $137K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 303 | Sullivan's Island SC | 1,961 | $193K | 8.8% | 1.5% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 427 | Folly Beach SC | 2,081 | $102K | 4.0% | 2.1% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,684 | Radium Springs NM | 1,908 | $44K | 15.4% | 8.7% | 4% | D |
| 4,685 | Winnsboro Mills SC | 1,535 | $35K | 38.8% | 9.8% | 2% | D |
| 4,686 | Wilkinson Heights SC | 2,012 | $25K | 29.7% | 15.0% | 8% | D |
| 4,687 | Junction City KY | 2,346 | $46K | 27.9% | 7.2% | 1% | D |
| 4,688 | Tarkio MO | 1,478 | $57K | 14.4% | 4.1% | 17% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Wilkinson Heights, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
The towns next door employ 21% of Wilkinson Heights
The biggest share goes to Orangeburg (18%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Wilkinson Heights workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilkinson Heights | – | D | B+ | 23 min | $25,489 |
| Orangeburg | 18% | D | B | 24 min | $38,635 |
| Brookdale | 3% | D | B− | 25 min | $39,449 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Wilkinson Heights’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 Wilkinson Heights: questions
What is the median household income in Wilkinson Heights?
$25,489 (±$7,421) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wilkinson Heights?
29.7%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wilkinson Heights?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wilkinson Heights work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Orangeburg (18%, 2 mi), Columbia (5%, 38 mi), North Charleston (4%, 59 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wilkinson Heights walkable?
Wilkinson Heights is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wilkinson Heights without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 22% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wilkinson Heights, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wilkinson Heights
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.