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Folly Beach, SC

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Folly Beach is a very small coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of South Carolina. With a population of 2,084 people and just one neighborhood, Folly Beach is the 133rd largest community in South Carolina.

Folly Beach home prices are not only among the most expensive in South Carolina, but Folly Beach real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some cities, Folly Beach isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Folly Beach are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Folly Beach is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Folly Beach who work in office and administrative support (20.61%), legal occupations (19.18%), and sales jobs (11.84%).

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 28.57% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that Folly Beach is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the city experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller city.

It is a fairly quiet city because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Folly Beach has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Folly Beach has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Folly Beach than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Folly Beach may be for you.

Folly Beach is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.

One downside of living in Folly Beach, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 30.56 minutes every day commuting to work.

Folly Beach is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.

Demographics

Folly Beach is one of the most well-educated cities in the nation. 43.57% of adults in Folly Beach have at least a bachelor's degree. Compare that to the average community in America, which has just 21.84% with a bachelor's degree or higher.

The per capita income in Folly Beach in 2022 was $61,847, which is wealthy relative to South Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $247,388 for a family of four. However, Folly Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Folly Beach home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Folly Beach residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Folly Beach include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Scottish.

The most common language spoken in Folly Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Folly Beach, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Real Estate

Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.

In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 78.9% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.9% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.

People

In a nation where 1 out of every 4 children lives in poverty, the neighborhood stands out as being ranked among the lowest 0.0% of neighborhoods affected by this global issue.

In addition, if you are planning to retire in South Carolina, this neighborhood should be on your must-see list. For many reasons, may be considered a retiree's dream neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and metrics, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety from crime compared to other neighborhoods in South Carolina, while also offering a diverse range of housing options. This, along with the vibrant mix of very educated seniors and other age groups who choose to live here, makes the neighborhood more retiree-friendly than 97.2% of neighborhoods in SC. If a South Carolina retirement is in your future, this neighborhood should be one of the places you visit.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Scottish and Eastern European ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 8.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Scottish ancestry and 3.2% have Eastern European ancestry.

The Neighbors

There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.

The neighbors in the neighborhood in Folly Beach are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 67.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.

What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.

In the neighborhood, 40.8% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 32.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (20.4%), and 6.7% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 100.0% of households. Some people also speak Italian (2.9%).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the neighborhood in Folly Beach, SC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (16.7%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (13.9%), and residents who report Italian roots (11.0%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (8.9%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (8.6%), among others.

Getting to Work

How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (46.2% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (79.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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