Spartanburg County, South Carolina
Demographics & Population
Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 · 5-Year Estimates
Household Income
Population Profile
Educational Attainment
Employment Overview
- Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
- Elevated poverty: At 14.5%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
- Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 10.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
Economy & Industry
Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW · Bureau of Economic Analysis
- Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 38,203 workers (31.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $78,474.
- Economic scale: Regional GDP of $23B (2024).
- Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $86,312 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $25,638, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.
EP customers get year-over-year deltas, WARN notices, and SEC filings for every sector tracked above, surfaced as proactive alerts, not after-the-fact news.
Industry Concentration
Location Quotient measures regional specialization vs. national average. LQ > 1.0 = concentrated.
Cluster Depth
Attraction Opportunities
- Top specialization: Textile Mills concentrates at 15.33x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
- Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.
- Attraction whitespace: 6 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.
Housing & Affordability
Census ACS · HUD Fair Market Rents FY2026
Housing Overview
HUD Fair Market Rents
- In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.5x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
- High home ownership: 73% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
- Affordable rent tiers: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,656/mo).
Workforce Pipeline
Labor force readiness, commuting, and workforce composition
Labor Market Overview
Education & Talent Pipeline
Aging Workforce
Workforce by Occupation
- Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 20,095 annual credentials.
AI Insights
AI-assisted analysis, drawn from 9 federal data sources
Spartanburg County shows strong potential for textile mills attraction, with a 15.33x concentration and 1,260 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.
The interconnected base across textile mills, transportation equipment manufacturing, and textile product mills creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.
Industry Shift Analysis
Prospect Match Scores
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Schedule a DemoData Sources
Updated from official federal government data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Key economic and demographic figures for Spartanburg County, South Carolina, from federal data sources.
What is the population of Spartanburg County, South Carolina?
347,852 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates).
What is the median household income in Spartanburg County, South Carolina?
$66,234 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates).
What is the unemployment rate in Spartanburg County, South Carolina?
4.6% (2025 annual average, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, LAUS).
What is the GDP of Spartanburg County, South Carolina?
$23B (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, CAGDP1).
