Laurel Bay, SC population, income and ZIP codes

Laurel Bay CDP is a mid-size town in South Carolina, with 5,627 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #96 of 475 ranked by population — larger than 79% of them. The median age here is 23.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 Laurel Bay CDP earn a median of $52,094 a year, 33.7% below the national figure of $78,538 and within a couple of points of the $53,071 median for the 263 South Carolina cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 17.9% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Laurel Bay CDP is valued at $221,300, 27.1% below the national figure and 25% above the $177,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,375 a month, 2.2% below the national figure, or roughly $16,500 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 31.7% 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 4.2×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 24.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 23.3 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. 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.