Aiken, SC population, income and ZIP codes

Aiken city is a small city in South Carolina, with 32,334 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #15 of 475 ranked by population — larger than 97% of them. The median age here is 46.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Aiken city earn a median of $69,837 a year, 11.1% below the national figure of $78,538 and 32% above the $53,071 median for the 263 South Carolina cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 16.3% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Aiken city is valued at $261,800, 13.7% below the national figure and 48% above the $177,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,199 a month, 14.7% below the national figure, or roughly $14,388 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.6% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 69.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.