Hilltop, SC population, income and ZIP codes

Hilltop CDP is a small town in South Carolina, with 3,058 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #151 of 475 ranked by population — larger than 68% of them. The median age here is 36.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Hilltop CDP earn a median of $39,432 a year, 49.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 26% below 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 17.7% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Hilltop CDP is valued at $121,400, 60% below the national figure and 31% below the $177,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,153 a month, 18% below the national figure, or roughly $13,836 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 35.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 50.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Hilltop CDP is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 35.1% of median income while homes cost only 3.1× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.